Fukushima Daiishi Nuclear Plant update March 18, about 8 PM Tokyo time. 
Taken from NHK World English. and other sources as cited. 

Japan Self-Defence Force photograph dated March 16 of Reactor 3 damage
 

The New York Times is reporting that Japan has raised its assessment of the severity of the crisis. Until now, they rated it a 4 on the 7 level international scale of nuclear accidents. It has been increased to a 5. What does this mean? They now admit this accident is no longer of local significance. For comparison, the Three Mile Island incident was rated as a 5 on this scale and Chernobyl topped it out at a 7.

It is now acknowledged that the spent fuel pool at reactor 4 is damaged and leaking, a possibility raised in this blog earlier this week, making it very difficult or impossible to refill the pool with water.

Efforts to spray water on reactor 3, the most dangerous of the six reactors at the site, continue.
Seven fire trucks are now spraying that reactor.

One truck is beginning to spray the reactor 1 spent fuel tank as the water level is falling to a dangerous level.

Reactor 2 continues to emit steam, indicating that the pool water level is too low or, that the spent rods have gotten too hot.

Reactors 5 and 6 spent fuel tank temperature are rising now and the situation is being monitored. But they are not deemed an immediate threat.

It is said that TEPCO has restored electric power to the plant complex but there is no word if they have successfully restored the cooling pumps to service. It is unknown if the pumps were damaged by the tsunami, the earthquake or the various explosions at the site and if some or all of the pumps even can be restored to service.

Many people in the areas most affected by the earthquake are reporting various illnesses related to lack of heat and food. It is unknown if these illnesses are related to exposure to radiation.

It must be remembered that these efforts to apply water to the spent fuel pools have no relation to, or effect on, any possible partial or full meltdowns of fuel in the reactors themselves.

RTT News reported that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Yukiya Amano has arrived in Tokyo to confer with Japan's Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto about the crisis. Amano stated that Japanes authorities have agreed to provide a transparent account of events. I take that to mean that they have not provided a transparent account heretofore.

After his meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Amano said this about the battle to stabilize the nuclear plants. "This is a very grave and serious accident so it is important that the international community, including the IAEA, handles this jointly. Especially cooling (the reactors) is extremely important, so I think it is a race against time."

TEPCO now states that an outside power source has been brought to the plant but that they have not yet successfully connected that power to the cooling systems (the suppression pumps) of the plants. It is unknown what systems will even function once electricity has been supplied. TEPCO states that this effort is hampered by very high radiation levels in the work area. It is hoped that the suppression pump for plant 2 can be put back in service Saturday. The high levels of radiation is the biggest problem facing workers attempting to repair the inoperative cooling systems.

The IAEA reported in its website that Japan on Thursday night at 9:15 PM EDT (Friday morning Japan time),  altered the INES (The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale) ratings of the events at Fukushima Daiishi  as follows:
Core damage reactors 2&3  -Rating 5
Loss of cooling water of spent fuel pool at reactor 4  -Rating 5
Loss of cooling functions at reactors 1,2, &4    -Rating 3

Most of the control functions of the reactor have been made inoperable due to the fact that they were submerged in seawater during the tsunami. Workers are limited to working only 20 minutes at a time in the control rooms of the reactors. The highest radiation is in reactors 3&4. That is the reason it takes three days to restore power to the cooling functions of each reactor. Control functions must be replaced. It will  not be known if the suppression pumps have been damaged until they are actually used. Or if they can be fixed or need to be replaced. 

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant update March 18, about 9 AM Tokyo time. 
Taken from NHK World English.


About 5,700 deaths have been confirmed from the earthquake and tsunami. About 9,600 persons are missing or unaccounted for. Temperatures remain below freezing and some elderly are dying as a result of lack of heat in shelters. 285,000 persons live in the areas left without electricity from the earthquake. 

It is believed that fire engines pumping water towards reactor 3 have reached the spent fuel pool. The evidence for this is steam now being observed emanating from reactor 3.
Water spraying operations will resume today on the reactors with the addition of firefighters and their equipment to the SDF troops already there. The spraying is being concentrated on reactors 3 and 4.
Radiation readings are still highest at reactor 3, the plutonium fueled and most potentially dangerous reactor.
Reactors 5 and 6 remain unchanged.
Today it is hoped that power can be connected to the cooling device at reactor 2 to cool the fuel there.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Unless you are Queen Elizabeth II or her family. The Players Lounge in Dublin has draped a forty foot banner across the front of the pub indicating that certain royals are unwelcome there.
The Queen is scheduled to make her first visit to Ireland in May.
Police advised the proprietor of the pub, Mr. John Stokes, to take down the banner. He refused and a judge then ordered him to remove the offensive signage. He then complied rather than face legal sanctions. Full story here.

The Supermoon is coming March 19.
But I have been feeling the effects this week already. The last two night I have had super intense dreams.
Tuesday night it was all about being in the earthquake/tsunami.
Last night it was an even more disastrous experience, if that is possible, when nuclear war broke out.
What will it be tonight?

Richard Nolle's Astropro site on the Supermoon. 

Les aristocrates à la lanterne!
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
Les aristocrates, on les pendra!
Le despotisme expirera,
La liberté triomphera,
Ah! ça ira, ça ira, ça ira,
-lyrics from "Ça Ira!"  popular song of the French Revolution

Beer Bottle Brouhaha 

I am documenting the disturbing trend of the use of the 11.2 ounce (330 ml) beer bottle. The vast majority of beers brewed in the United State use the 12 ounce bottle. Many beers brewed in the UK seem to be sold in the 12 ounce bottle in the United States. Most beers, with some exceptions (for example, Heineken, St. Pauli Girl the export only German brand, and Pilsner Urquel), brewed in the EU  are sold in 11.2 ounce bottle. I understand that our pint measurement (16 ounces) is smaller than the Euro equivalent 500 ml bottle, which contains 16.9 fluid ounces. But the vast majority of American and  imported beer is packaged in the smaller bottle.
I am merely presenting a cautionary instruction here. Check before you buy and understand you are getting almost 7% less beer if you buy the 11.2 ounce bottle.

The List of Shame


Prominent Beer Brands Selling the 11.2 Ounce Bottle  in the USA

Löwenbräu
All Belgian Beers as far as I can tell.
Stella Artois
Estrella Damm

A Special Case
Sneaky Labatt's (owned by AB InBev) sells beer in 11.5 oz. bottles.
Let us be grateful they only short us 1/2 ounce per bottle.
However, their cans contain a full 12 ounces.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants

It Is Safe To Say That Nuclear Reactors Are Inherently Unsafe

If there is a silver lining to the dark clouds of the ongoing disasters in Japan it may be that the world will think twice before entertaining the notion that the solution to the world's hunger for power can be safely satisfied by the production of nuclear energy as it is now attempted. Think five hundred pound man on a tightrope.

Last month President Obama pledged the nuclear industry a further 8 billion dollars for building new nuclear reactors in the United States.   LINK  The Union of Concerned Scientists has documented that subsidies to the nuclear industry already exceed the value of the power produced.  Obama made a statement in his address that is neither a truism, nor possible,  nor feasible.  "..we'll have to build a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in America."  We don't "have to build" them, also,  the safety and cleanliness of these plants as we know them have always been an issue of dispute and the major argument against their safety and cleanliness is on display in Japan for all the world to see.  
The President neglected to mention the cost of nuclear power. But when you are President and you are making corporate America happy, money is no object.   Although, to be fair, he ran for the Democratic nomination stating in one debate that "we should explore nuclear energy as part of the mix" which turns out to be a bland precursor to what he wants to do now. In my mind there is a difference between "explore" and handing over bags of cash. I didn't notice his warm cuddly feelings for nukes at the time he was running for President. That was probably because he is usually quite diffident about the things he is actually going to do. 

I think that these kinds of subsidies for the likes of General Electric (Hitachi) and Westinghouse Electric Company, (Toshiba) who build these behemoths, are a waste of money that leads to further waste of money. This is corporate welfare, pure and simple.  If you have ever had a look at a Westinghouse HDTV you would wonder what this company is doing even thinking of building a reactor. All of the plants at the Fukushima Daiichi complex are General Electric designs. They are operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO). Here is your scorecard (with reactor manufacturers noted) for the Fukushima Daiichi plants as they experience their unfortunate events:

Status Updated 7:30 AM 17 March 2011 EDT, Thursday night Tokyo time, monitoring NHK World TV Live in English.  Further updates will be given via new blog posts. 


(Via NHK) Thursday night : Casualty reports indicate over 5,500 confirmed dead in the earthquake and tsunami and over 9,600 unaccounted for. 

Plant 1 July 1967-General Electric Reactor
Hydrogen gas caused outer housing explosion Saturday. Core may be in partial meltdown, estimated 70% fuel rods damaged.


Plant 2 June 1969-General Electric Reactor
core threatening to  In partial melt down.  Explosion early Tuesday damaged the containment system. Fuel rods were  fully exposed. An estimated 33% damage to fuel rods was reported. The suppression chamber in the reactor is reported damaged. 

Plant 3-December 1970-Toshiba (Westinghouse) Reactor
(uses mixed oxide Plutonium fuel and therefore is the most potentially hazardous)
Hydrogen gas caused outer housing explosion Sunday. Core may be in partial meltdown. White smoke was reported Wednesday morning. The reactor container is said to be intact but there are contradictory reports on the actual condition of the container. 
(Via NHK) Thursday the water in the spent fuel pool was reported too low which caused authorities to authorize helicopter water drops despite dangerous levels of radiation.  There is almost no water left in the spent fuel pool.  It will require many helicopter runs. A helicopter can carry 7.5 tons of water per drop. The pool capacity is 2000 tons. It is believed that the pool can cool the spent rods if brought to a level perhaps one third full. The rate of possible leakage in the pools is unknown. Authorities have given reactor 3 first priority for cooling as of noon Thursday, Japan time. This reactor is potentially the most dangerous as it uses plutonium mixed oxide fuel. The first helicopter run was at 9:48 AM Thursday morning Japan time. Water cannon may be used on site by police. Effective range of water cannon is 30 meters. Riot police have been instructed to begin use of riot water cannon on reactor 3 as soon as possible. 
Two helicopters made two drops each of 7.5 tons of seawater each from 90 meters altitude Thursday with an insignificant drop in measured radiation in the area at 3754 microsieverts per hour after the drops, measured 100 meters from plant 3. From my observation of video of these helicopters it looks like very little seawater is actually reaching the pool from these drops. Because of the risk of radiation the helicopters were unable to hover about the spent fuel pools. The had to drop the seawater while moving which spread out the water over a large area rather than the target area. Lead plates were installed underneath the helicopters to provide some protection against radiation. The extra weight is was said to hamper mobility and  ability of the helicopters to carry a payload. 
Five fire engines have been brought into the area to cool the spent rod piles. Police water cannon efforts to add water to the cooling pools was discontinued Thursday. Water cannons were unable to reach the pools without putting police personnel in danger of excess radiation effects. 
Water sprayed or dropped into the pool seems to be vaporizing as soon as it enters the pool. 
Thursday night heroic Japan Self Defense Force (SDF) personnel commenced spraying water from five fire engines into the spent fuel storage pools at plant 3 and 4. SDF personnel were able to operate the fire engines from inside the equipment helping them to avoid some radiation. 
TEPCO personnel are attempting to restore high voltage electric power to the water pumps at the reactor sites. It is unknown if the pumps will operate when power is restored.
"At a certain point, they're going to have to abandon ship, they're committing a suicide mission to go in there. The radiation levels are near lethal right now…you're committing suicide to spend large amount of time there." theoretical physicist Dr. Michio Kaku said Thursday.

Plant 4-February 1973-Hitachi (General Electric) Reactor
A reported  fire Tuesday morning was suppressed but fire started again on Wednesday. A possibility of drained water from spent fuel pool caused burning of exposed spent fuel rods. 
US officials were quoted Thursday as saying the spent fuel pool is empty at this reactor. 
The walls of this reactor have collapsed, according to a TEPCO spokesman Thursday night. Thursday night a TEPCO spokesman stated that some water was left in the spent fuel pool at reactor 4. 


Plant 5-May 1972-Toshiba (Westinghouse) Reactor
There was a  report Wednesday, Japan time, of  low coolant pool water level causing  a high temperature in the spent fuel pool. No combustion has been reported. 

Plant 6-October 1973-General Electric Reactor
A report Wednesday indicated that coolant pool water level was  low, causing an elevated temperature in the spent fuel pool. No combustion has been reported. 


On Thursday, in cooperation with the Japanese government, a USAF Global Hawk surveillance drone plane was dispatched from Guam to take detailed photographs of the Fukushima Daiichi complex and surrounding areas damaged by the earthquake and Tsunami.  

Plant 7 planned for 2016
Plant 8 planned for 2017

Notes:
No one really knows what is going on inside these plants. It is too dangerous to go inside and monitoring equipment is probably inoperable. Actual readings of radioactivity just outside the plant seem to be a guarded secret. Only observations of smoke and structural damage can be made at this time.
Plants#4,  #5 and #6 were reported shut down and under maintenance at the time of the earthquake.
General Electric and Hitachi nuclear power divisions merged (or created an "alliance") in 2007 as GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy.
Westinghouse Electric was sold by CBS/Viacom to British Nuclear Fuels Ltd. in 1999.
In 2006 BNFL sold Westinghouse Electric to Toshiba.

Observations:
Maybe it is not a great idea to put six nuclear plants in the same place.
I think it is now safe to say that the generation of nuclear energy as we know it it not a good idea. 

And to those who would glibly defend the industry I ask:

Will you be around for 200,000 years to ensure the integrity of the nuclear waste?

If you were not directly or indirectly making a buck out of nuclear power, would you defend it?
And.... Would you have the balls to fight a reactor fire like those brave bastards in Japan? 

Rube Goldberg Machine

Nuclear power plants as we know them are unsafe overly-complicated Rube Goldberg contraptions.

They require inordinate attention and effort to maintain the illusion of safety, but never safety itself because they are inherently dangerous with an unacceptable degree of potential damage to people and the environment. 

They produce waste that must be protected for millennia. 

In the long run nuclear power is far too expensive and not worth the gigantic risk.

And if it were not for government subsidies (welfare) and government assurances of reduced liability, no private company in their right mind would build a nuclear power plant. They would never make a profit and they could never afford insurance on the open market.

By illustration of that statement I submit to you the sad spectacle of  Presidents and Congresses over the years offering cash to subsidize the building of the plants (Like Obama's charitable donation of $8 billion last month. Was it pledge month for the nuclear industry in February?) and laws like the Price-Anderson Nuclear Industries Indemnity Act that puts the government (in effect, the people) on the hook for liability over a set amount ($12.6 billion in 2011, not bad when estimated damages for a meltdown are as much as $500 billion) when the nuclear power industry has that inevitable "unfortunate accident". Such events are attended to by officials wringing their hands and wailing about the fact that no one could have foreseen the disaster. But that is exactly the problem with nuclear energy as we know it. No one can foresee all the potential for trouble in a giant complicated radioactive machine  and nuclear trouble is BIG potential trouble.
See article: "A Japan-reactor repeat in the United States could cost the government dearly"

And if you believe in free markets what are you doing supporting nuclear energy? After fifty years nuclear power is not viable without subsidies from YOU, as we read in this article, published just last month from the Union of Concerned Scientists titled aptly "After 50 Years, Nuclear Power is Still Not Viable without Subsidies, New Report Finds". LINK  We discover in this report that over thirty subsidies support the nuclear power industry every step of the way from the mining of radioactive materials to the long term storage of radioactive waste materials. Nuclear power represents the purest form of corporate socialism. And the way it is being shoved down our throats despite the known danger  is corporate terrorism.

Quotes of the Day
"The tsunami is a horrible human disaster, but to the shark it is the answer to his prayers."
And.....
"You can have it both ways when you begin and end with conflicting assertions."- John Bonanno 

The NFL Impasse

As a union member I am rather annoyed when professional athletes call themselves a union. The most important thing that unions do is negotiate pay through collective bargaining. The NFLPA doesn't do that. The NFLPA is a specialized professional guild like the AMA. The NFLPA negotiates working conditions and the circumstances under which teams may sign players to the contracts that they negotiate themselves through their agents. (Football players would shit their pants if they had a union that negotiated pay for all based some kind of a fair system that rewarded all position players using a  formula that quantified  production while taking seniority into consideration.) The owners and the players both represent exclusive groups: Those who own NFL franchises and those who can play at the highest level of football.

The average worker  in a union, the average person, cannot identify with either group because he could not qualify as a member of either elite set of people. But the average person's interest and attendance makes those gigantic contracts possible.

The players are doing the union movement a disservice by trying to set themselves up as downtrodden workers.  I understand that players have problems that need to be negotiated with owners. Workplace safety, health care and pensions are important considerations for football players. Medical Doctors may have issues with hospitals and pharmaceutical corporations, but that doesn't put them on a par with workers who are scraping by. And doctors are smart enough not to try to present such an equivalence. Football players, in general are not as smart as doctors. Unions do not  need rich guys trying to present themselves as laborers at this time. It brings the stench of overpaid entitlement to working people who are trying to keep the hard won achievements of a living wage and benefits while being demonized by plutocrats and their political stooges. It is not beneficial for wage workers to be associated with professional athletes who are set up for life simply because they played a game for a few years. The NFLPA's use of the decertification ploy also indicates that they really don't value their "union" as an entity.

Have we seen any NFL players marching in solidarity in Wisconsin? I can't remember that I've seen any. I understand that the (now defunct) NFLPA announced it was in support of Wisconsin public workers. But talk is cheap. I suspect most of the former members of the NFLPA are sympathetic with Governor Scott Walker and vote Republican. The minimum wage in the NFL was $320,000 in 2010. And most of the owners are  rich guys who cannot really identify with the average citizen and donate to Republican politicians who are trying on their behalf to destroy the real union movement that represents real workers.  Twelve NFL owners just made Forbes List of the 1,210 billionaires in the world today. Neither side has bargained in good faith. The union had a decertification scheme in place that they had every intention to use. The owners had their lock-out plan.  So I guess I'm just saying a pox on both of their  houses.

And who are the athletes who really could  use a union and will never have one because it is too late and the sport is basically dead? That would be professional boxers.

Cushing's Screen Test
As 'Renfield' for the 
Upcoming Film "Doggy Dracula"


THE FLY

 Little Fly, 

 Thy summer's play 

 My thoughtless hand 

 Has brushed away. 

 Am not I 

 A fly like thee? 

 Or art not thou 

 A man like me? 

 For I dance 

 And drink, and sing, 

 Till some blind hand 

 Shall brush my wing. 

 If thought is life 

 And strength and breath 

 And the want 

 Of thought is death; 

 Then am I 

 A happy fly, 

 If I live, 

 Or if I die.

William Blake

The Stingy 11.2 ounce bottle. 

Thieving Euros?


Perhaps the title of this post is a bit harsh. 
I usually don't purchase beer from the old world.
There are ample quality brews available brewed in the United States now.
At one time such beers were rare.
From time to time I enjoy one of the British Bitters or Trappist Ales, a Stella Artois or a Heineken, especially when in the islands of the Caribbean.

I bought a box of Löwenbräu yesterday.
I did it because I noticed that the version suddenly common in the stores is brewed in Germany again.

For many years Miller Brewing concocted an American Löwenbräu that contained corn in the recipe. It didn't taste much like the former import beer. It tasted like Miller. They thereby destroyed the reputation of the brand over a thirty year period and it was discontinued here early in the twenty-first century.
I knew that Löwenbräu is now owned by the same international conglomerate (AB InBev) that owns Budweiser and I was curious about this Löwenbräu.

The flavor I found in this Löwenbräu, which is described as a 5.2% malt liquor on the label, was OK. But it is as bland as German beer can get. And it is not as tasty or as fragrant as the remembered  imported Löwenbräu of my youth.
But memories of youth can be illusive.

Then I noticed a disturbing fact.
This beer from Europe comes in an 11.2 ounce bottle.
That means you get 9.6 ounces LESS in a twelve pack of beer.
I had subliminally noticed that some beers from away came in a smaller bottle.
But for the first time it really annoyed me.
I am finished buying beer that comes in the 11.2 ounce bottle.
Brewers, stop stealing 80% a bottle of beer from me when I buy a twelve pack and I will reconsider my decision.
At least prominently display on the box that the bottles contain a measly 11.2 ounces of beer.
Before great American beers become available I suppose I would have accepted the 1/3 liter size bottle as the price one had to pay for an imported beer. But no more.
On my next beer buying excursion I will research bottle sizes of various brands and report in this space.

Anheuser-Busch InBev produces 25% of all the beer in the world and bottles the following brands:

International

Budweiser, Stella Artois, Beck's and Brahma 

Some Local and Regional Brands

Staropramen, Alexander Keith's, Leffe and Hoegaarden, Bud Light, Skol, Quilmes, Labatt Blue, Michelob, Harbin, Sedrin, Cass, Klinskoye, Sibirskaya Korona, Chernigivske and Jupiler.  

The 330 ml bottle brings a lot of extra profit when you consider how big AB InBev is and how much imported beer they sell in the USA to people who may not be aware that they are drinking from a short-measured bottle. 

The Phantom Sprayer

I've finally seen the mysterious cat who has been spraying on our back door

Fifteen minutes ago I heard a little howling in the yard.
I crept to the light switch.
I flipped on the light and swung open the door.
And there was a big grey tom cat on the back step.
I hooted at him,
Startled, he ran away....
I may be fortunate he was not lined up and ready to spray on the door as I opened it.

FOOLING SPYCAMS!


Mr. Corbett suggests in this video that IBM is working on A.I. that will allow a computer to predict criminal activity based on body movements picked up by cameras monitoring public places.

I recommend that we perform quirky bizarre and random body movements in public places to foil their dastardly schemes.
Or, one could assume a guilty and sneaky Spy vs. Spy persona.
We could all just skulk around holding our capes to our faces in public.
Or just wear a damn burka,
Or an outlandish costume.
Never, ever, act like just like yourself.
Impersonate someone.
"All the world's a stage."
Today I am Mr. Spock.

Suggested Costume

In Progress Part 2

Persons I Would Like To Meet


The first man or woman who climbed upon a horse with the intention to ride.
The first person who gazed at a snowcapped mountain in wonder and successfully climbed to the top.
The guy or gal who made that possible by figuring out that one could skin the hide and fur off an animal and fashion clothing so as to wear it.
The first one to string a bow, cut and arrow and use them to kill for food.
The first person to flake a stone tool.
The genius who first could repeat the miracle of making fire.
The first person to draw a representative and recognizable form on a surface.
Whoever first plunged deeply into the ocean to retrieve a sponge or oysters for food or pearls.
The first man who ate an oyster... and mushrooms.
The first guy who got in his boat and purposely sailed beyond the sight of land.
The one who figured out how to smelt metals.
The first person to measure something.

In Progress Part 1

Work in Progress, Acrylic on Board with Detail, March 5, 2011

Cushing and Chutney Enjoying a Walk

I've Fallen Down 
And I Don't Want To Get Up


"I fell off stage and bruised some ribs. The worst part was that the audience didn't realize I was gone."-Richard Marx

On Saturday, February 18 at 5:30 AM while taking my canine friends Chutney and Cushing out for their morning constitutional I noticed that my driveway had become a sheet of ice. Friday had been one of the rare days of the winter with a bit of a thaw. The packed layer of snow in our long downhill driveway was now a bobsled track. Even though I was half asleep, I noticed this. I was aware of it. I am a recently retired mailman in Maine. I know how to walk on ice. I am aware of the danger of falling. I had fallen a few times as a letter carrier and had never been hurt falling. The one bad back injury I had suffered on the job came from not falling, catching my fall after slipping on ice by quickly bending and then straightening my left leg and experiencing the dynamic jolt of my entire body weight going up the leg and into my spine, damaging my S-1 disc in the process. This injury would finally lead to surgery after seventeen years of working in pain.
I told myself at that time that it was just better to fall and break something than try to stay on one's feet and hurt one's back.

It May Sometimes Be Better To Fall Down
But Sometimes You Have No Choice

The dogs seemed a little reluctant to urinate in their regular spot so, in an adventurous mood, I decided to ambulate down the driveway to the street. Walking down the side of the driveway where there was some snow that I could grip seemed like a good strategy. But, of course, as I approached the end of the driveway there was no more snow and I fell. I didn't have a chance. Almost before I knew what was happening I landed on my right side and on my back. Instantly I knew I was hurt. It wasn't the fault of the dogs. They didn't pull me down. I just went down all by myself. They approached me and licked my face in sympathy.
I let them lick; I got up, and then they finally pissed.

Oh, The Pain, The Pain!

I struggled back to the house and spent the next two days trying to get comfortable around the spreading pain in my right side. I hoped for bruised not broken ribs. I went to my physician who ordered x-rays. The radiologist at the hospital read them as negative. After two days I started to feel better. On the fourth day I was feeling much better.  At bedtime on the evening of the fourth day I went to brush my teeth feeling very pleased about the improvement in my ribs. I was enjoying a new toothpaste (A natural brand,Organique Neem and Pomegranite by Himalaya, made in Bangalore, India. I'm not being paid to say that.) and in the process I sneezed and instantly felt like I got kicked in the side by a horse. I returned to the doctor the next day and he pulled up my x-rays from the internets. He uttered words to the effect 'By golly they missed something here. You have at least two broken ribs'.

Broken Ribs From the Outside After Eight Days

Happy Days! Have Some Drugs

He prescribed oxycodone, which I despise, having taken it when my back was at its worst just before surgery in 2002. But you have to keep down the pain of broken ribs so you can breathe deeply to avoid getting pneumonia. That drug messes up your digestion, your sleep patterns, and it makes your brain sluggish. How people can take this stuff for fun I'll never know.
Broken ribs are one debilitating thing. I have had no energy because pain limits my ability to move around. And lack of activity breeds lack of activity. But I'm feeling better now and that's it for the oxy. Back in the day we took drugs to have visions. Psychedelics [ψυχή (psyche, "soul") and δηλοῦν (deloun, "to manifest")] were used to enhance experience.  It seems like a lot of people today are looking for something to shut down their brains and avoid experience.
But enough of my old man rant, no one wants to hear it.

The Driveway Today

Almost all of the snow we have enjoyed this winter remains here in Hiram.

Cecil Rhodes Monument, Capetown

"Remember that you are an Englishman, and have consequently won first prize in the lottery of life."-Cecil Rhodes

A Short List of Recent Prominent Rhodes Scholars

Extracted from the document: List of American Rhodes Scholars 1904-2011 


Click here for another very useful list of Rhodes Scholars sorted by occupation and position.


Thirty-two of the brightest young Americans are awarded Rhodes Scholarships every year. Prominent Americans like Bill Clinton, Robert Reich, David Vitter, Richard Lugar, Bobby Jindal, and David Souter were  chosen Rhodes Scholars in their day. 

I am not making a judgement  about any one of them.
In fact, I am certain I would have accepted a Rhodes Scholarship had I applied and been offered one in my youth.

I do find execrable the notorious colonialist Mr. Cecil Rhodes. He instituted the scholarship program with a fortune wrenched out of Africa. With funding from the Rothschild Family, he founded the De Beers diamond mining concern in 1888. Through a shrewd strategic mix of price fixing, a captive labor force, monopoly and inventory control De Beers  ensured that diamond prices were maintained at a high level and profits were maximized.

The questions to be asked are 'What becomes of Rhodes scholars?' and, 'How does their Oxford education (or indoctrination) affect their lives, and ours?' and,  'Do they have a secret handshake?'
I only half jest.
We must consider the racist, or racialist as it were, views and agenda of Anglo-Saxon superiority held by Mr. Cecil Rhodes as revealed by these quotes from his 1877 essay, "Confession of Faith". 

It is up to each of us to determine whether the original agenda of Cecil Rhodes, which is reflected in these quotes,  persists as  Raison d'être of today's Rhodes Trust.

"Why should we not form a secret society with but one object the furtherance of the British Empire and the bringing of the whole uncivilised world under British rule for the recovery of the United States for the making of the Anglo-Saxon race but one empire." 

"There are some subjects on which there can be no arguments, and to an Englishman this is one of them, but  even from an American's point of view just picture what they have lost, look at their government. Are not the frauds that yearly come before the public view a disgrace to any country and especially theirs which is the finest in the world? Would they have occurred had they remained under English rule? Great as they have become how infinitely greater they would have been with the softening and elevating influences of English rule. Think of those countless 000’s of Englishmen that during the last 100 years would have crossed the Atlantic and settled and populated the United States. Would they have not made without any prejudice a finer country of it than the low class Irish and German emigrants?"

"It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.
To forward such a scheme what a splendid help a secret society would be, a society not openly acknowledged but who would work in secret for such an object."

"Once make it common and it fails. Take a man of great wealth who is bereft of his children perhaps having his mind soured by some bitter disappointment who shuts himself up separate from his neighbours and makes up his mind to a miserable existence. To such men as these the society should go, gradually disclose the greatness of their scheme, and entreat him to throw in his life and property with them for this object. I think that there are thousands now existing who would eagerly grasp at the opportunity. Such are the heads of my scheme.
For fear that death might cut me off before the time for attempting its development I leave all my worldly goods in trust to S. G. Shippard and the Secretary for the Colonies at the time of my death to try to form such a Society with such an object."

A List Of Recent Prominent Rhodes Scholars

1999
Benjamin Edward Cannon – Oregon State House of Representatives (2007-present)
Jonathan J. Finer (CFR) – former embedded reporter for The Washington Post during the Iraq War (2003)
Antonio Ramon Delgado –AD The Voice, singer and hip-hop artist; singer of Painfully Free album

1998
Noam Scheiber – senior editor of The New Republic
Ebrahim Patel (CFR)

1997
Jeremy Andrew Vetter – Assistant Professor of History at Dickinson College
Annette Elizabeth Salmeen – awarded a gold medal in swimming at 1996 Summer Olympics
Benjamin Todd Jealous – President and CEO of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (2008-present)
Tali Farimah Farhadian (CFR, S&B 1997)
Former Associate of Debevoise & Plimpton [law firm in New York City]
Lawyer in the Office of the U.S. Attorney General (2009-2010)
John Maxon Ackerly (CFR)

1996
Michelle Diane Gavin (CFR)
Foreign Policy Advisor to U.S. Senator Russ Feingold (1999-2005)
Special Assistant to the President and National Security Council Senior Director for African Affairs (2009-present)
Priya Radhakrishnan Aiyar – Associate of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, P.L.L.C.

1995
Rachel Maddow – host of “The Rachel Maddow Show” on MSNBC
Zayde Gordon Antrim – Assistant Professor of History at Trinity College (2006-present)

1994
Zachary J. Ziliak – Associate of Mayer Brown [law firm in Chicago] (2007-present)
Andrew J. Zawacki – author and poet
Dacia Meek Sampson Toll – President of Achievement First; founder of Amistad Academy in New Haven, Connecticut
Eduardo M. Penalver – Associate Professor of Law at Cornell University Law School
Randal D. Pinkett – Co-Founder, President and CEO of BCT Partners

1993
John R. Unger II – Member of the West Virginia Senate (1998-present)
Stanley J. Panikowski III – Partner of DLA Piper [law firm in San Diego, CA]
Julie M. Mikuta
Member of the Washington, D.C. Board of Education (2001-2004)
Partner in the NewSchools Venture Fund West Coast office [San Francisco, CA]
Alison Morantz – Assistant Professor of Law at Stanford Law School
Pamela Dawn McElwee – assistant professor at The School of Global Studies at Arizona State University
David K. Ismay – former Navy SEAL Platoon Commander
M. Taylor Fravel, Jr. (CFR) – Professor of Politics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Eric Garcetti – President of Los Angeles City Council (2005-present)
Peter Beinart – Editor of The New Republic (1999-2006)

1992
Catherine M. Sharkey (S&B 1992)
Professor of Law at New York University School of Law (2007-present)
Professor of Law at Columbia University Law School (2003-2007)
Richard A. Primus – Professor of Law at University of Michigan Law School
Piyush Robert Jindal
Governor of Louisiana (2008-present)
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives (2005-2008)
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation (2001-2004)
President of the Louisiana State University System (1999-2001)
Nikolas K. Gvosdev (CFR) – editor of The National Interest
Jonah Edelman
co-founder of Stand for Children organization;
son of Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman
Noah Feldman (CFR)
Bemis Professor of International Law at Harvard Law School (2007-present)
Cecelia Goetz Professor of Law at New York University (2006-2007)
Cory A. Booker (CFR) – Mayor of Newark, New Jersey (2006-present)

1991
Kenji Yoshino
Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law at New York University School of Law (2008-present)
Guido Calabresi Professor of Law at Yale Law School (2006-2008)
Professor of Law at Yale Law School (2003-2006)
Jason R. Zimba – Professor of Physics and Mathematics at Bennington College
Leonard P. Stark
Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware (2010-present)
U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Delaware (2007-2010)
Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware (2002-2007)
Jesse Malkin –(former?) economist at  Rand Corporation, (which has been called America's University of Imperialism) married to uber-conservative, author and writer Michelle Malkin
Goodwin Liu
Professor of Law at University of California at Berkeley
Appointed Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit by President Barack Obama in 2010
Peter Blair Henry (CFR)
Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Economics at Stanford University
Dean of New York University Leonard N. Stern School of Business (2010-present)
Brad Ronnell Braxton – Associate Professor of Homiletics and New Testament at Vanderbilt University


I have gone back only twenty years, to 1991, in this document, pulling out some prominent names. You can be sure that these younger Rhodes alumni will be heard from more and more as time goes by. If you explore this list further you will find some very interesting curriculum vitae of Rhodes Scholars since 1904. There are many Federal Reserve bankers, prominent educators, diplomats, businessmen, and politicians. Not many of these men, and lately women, earned a living getting their hands dirty, shattering our illusions or our chains, or creating something to improve the physical or spiritual lot of humanity. Do your own research. Correct me if I am wrong.

"The public must be satisfied that Oswald was the assassin; that he did not have confederates who are still at large; and that evidence was such that he would have been convicted at trial."-Assistant Attorney General Nicholas deBelleville Katzenbach, in a  memo,  dated November 25 1963, two days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. This was a "rush to judgement"  indeed.   After being a prisoner of war of the Germans and Italians for two years during World War II, Nicholas was named a 1949 Rhodes Scholar.  Lyndon Johnson appointed him Attorney General in 1964, replacing Bobby Kennedy after his resignation. Two years later, Katzenbach  was named Under-Secretary of State. After the Johnson administration went away, Katzenbach became general council for IBM in 1969 for the duration of its thirteen year anti-trust proceedings. He obviously had intimate knowledge of the government's case and, as it turned out, IBM survived the litigation. He then served on the board of directors of MCI and in the same capacity for Verizon after the two entities merged when MCI came out of a bankruptcy. 

Links:

Office of the American Secretary, The Rhodes Trust

The American Association of Rhodes Scholars
Rhodes Scholars Chart Sorted by Occupation (A Must See)
The Rhodes Trust and Its Administration, Anthony Kenny (PDF)

Cushing Crashes My Passport Photo Session. No You Cannot Come With Us, Cushing. 

Addendum: My wife Beth thinks I bash the British a bit too much. I, in fact, love the people of old England. It is the Royals, their Empire and their minions I dislike. It is their financial system and the bankers of the City of London I dislike. It is the remnants, the Ghost of an Empire which the United States has been tasked to defend that I dislike. Wherever you see American troops in the world, which is almost everywhere, you see the unfinished business of the British Empire being attended to.

“If you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather.” -Mike Huckabee this week on WOR radio.

Mike should be reminded that the grandchildren of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted their grandparents.

Well, that, and the inconvenient fact that Obama didn't grow up in Kenya and never really knew his father, meeting him once at the age of ten.  It seems that the Right is prone to fantasizing. But the Left tends to ignore facts. Well, maybe, those who one would expect to  be on the left here in America ignore the facts and instead are swayed by simplistic Rightist phantasies. 

The origin of the term "Mau Mau" is uncertain. Later an acronym from the Swahili "Mzungu Aende Ulaya, Mwafrika Apate Uhuru" meaning "Let the European go back to Europe (Abroad), Let the African regain Independence" was adapted as the meaning of Mau Mau. It's hard to see what's wrong with that. There are people here in the United States saying much the same about Mexicans. There are some Native Americans who might say it about Euro-Americans but their numbers are few and their voices are soft. But their blood is strong in the Mexicans. What confusion!


"To and for the establishment, promotion and development of a Secret Society, the true aim and object whereof shall be for the extension of British rule throughout the world, the perfecting of a system of emigration from the United Kingdom, and of colonisation by British subjects of all lands where the means of livelihood are attainable by energy, labour and enterprise, and especially the occupation by British settlers of the entire Continent of Africa, the Holy Land, the Valley of the Euphrates, the Islands of Cyprus and Candia, the whole of South America, the Islands of the Pacific not heretofore possessed by Great Britain, the whole of the Malay Archipelago, the seaboard of China and Japan, the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire, the inauguration of a system of Colonial representation in the Imperial Parliament which may tend to weld together the disjointed members of the Empire and, finally, the foundation of so great a Power as to render wars impossible and promote the best interests of humanity." -Cecil Rhodes' "Confession of Faith"

It seems that Mike Huckabee's notion of the Mau Mau Rebellion may have been influenced by exploitation films like this 1954 Joe Rock and Elwood Price documentary narrated by Chet Huntley. There were staged scenes of topless African women chased by men with machetes.The Mau Mau and Kenyan London School of Economics educated leader Jomo Kenyatta were, of course, characterized as Communist influenced savages. The reality is below. Kenyatta spent most of the time of the rebellion in prison for 7 years being convicted of ties to the Mau Mau Society in what is now seen as a kangaroo court.

25,000 to 90,000 Mau Maus were killed by the British in the 1950's in an ultimately futile effort to extend colonial rule. Perhaps 30 white settlers , 200 British soldiers, and 2,000 African soldiers fighting on the colonial side were killed by Mau Maus during the eight year emergency. 

In the Future Our Teachers Will Come From Space

A Thought on Education Generated by the Events in Wisconsin
"Universal education has created an immense class of what I may call the New Stupid, hungering for certainty yet unable to find it in the traditional myths and their rationalizations." —Aldous Huxley

 Teachers should make a lot more money and they should be a lot easier to remove for incompetence. Teachers need unions, but the teachers and the unions need to see themselves as a professional guild which jealously protects the quality of its membership.  A teachers union should be the first party to act to remove one of its own who cannot perform. We need better teachers. How do we achieve that?
I want to get teachers who are expert in the subjects they will teach and I propose that they be paid well for that expertise. Therefore, candidates for the teaching profession should have a degree in a real subject, at least to the Masters level, and then get an education certificate as an afterthought. A teaching certificate shouldn't take more than six months to  a year to earn. It should be earned as a simple practical exercise with  mentors. A teachers union/guild should set high academic standards for admission. In my experience most teachers have an insufficient grounding in the subjects they teach.
Alternately, if someone has enough practical experience and expertise in a subject to pass a stringent examination, academic credentials could be waived.
We now observe the strange phenomena of teaching "professionals" who keep going to school to get higher degrees in subjects related to education which are primarily useful for becoming high paid administrators. These administrators are more interested in education as a meta discussion more appropriate to the training of a prison warden than as a process to transform  ignorant children into informed, thinking adults. A teacher who earns an advanced degree in a subject that is actually being taught rather than about the process of education should be monetarily rewarded and subsidized for the effort.
We cannot expect academically weak teachers to produce strong students. I would rather take my chances hiring an intelligent, interested, person who has knowledge in subject curriculum to instruct children than a trained "teacher" who has spent more time immersed in education technique, theory and philosophy than any subject one might need to know to become anything but an accepting slave.
The selection of teachers now is akin to signing stat-geeks and superfans to play on a baseball team. You will end up with a motley group physically unsuited to the task of playing baseball who, in theory, know what it takes to win, but don't have the tools themselves to do it. 

Irina Shayk in Ocean Drive Magazine

Cristiano Ronaldo Is Doing Very Well

I pronounce the curse (as explained in my earlier post) of Paris Hilton's sorcerer  a failure. Cristiano Ronaldo has a new friend.

As we can see in this story from the Hollywood Reporter, Sports Illustrated Cover Girl Irina Shayk is hot. And what was Cristiano's reaction to her SI photographs? She told Huffington Post, "Pure smile!"
Everything is 'pure smile' in Ronaldo's world. He is on a record setting pace scoring goals for Real Madrid and says he feels 'phenomenal'.
Pepe, the witch from Malaga, predicted he would deliver a second career ending injury for Ronaldo last year. "In four months maximum, he will never be able to play football." boasted Pepe in October of 2009. He was obviously wrong.

Sultry Irina looks fine in a yellow bikini.

Maine! Does it Suck? You Decide. 
(Or, Is This The Way Life Should Be?)


Are We the Stupidest State? 
Last night Christopher Knowles linked on Facebook to a Disinformation story from this site,  titled "The United States of Shame" which put every state in a negative light revealing a shameful statistic about the achievements and character of the people of each state. Unfortunately, according to the chart,  Maine appeared to dwell in a special form of darkness and was declared the "Dumbest State" (apologies to mute people) in the sense of intelligence (or wasted intelligence) revealed by the ubiquitous SAT test. Maine scored the lowest in the country. Yet Maine spends the 5th most money per capita on education. I wondered how this could be. I had never been especially impressed by the brilliance of Maine's education system but I doubted we could be worse than some of the benighted states I had visited in my life.
Then  it came to my attention that Maine requires SAT testing of all high school students, even those who are educationally challenged. This would obviously skew scores to the low side. Many states in the West and the South  have very low optional participation in the SAT test. In twenty states only 11% and under of all students participate.  And some have as low as 3% participation. That does not even take into account the variable high school drop out rates of the states. When only the best students with college ambitions are taking the test, obviously scores will be higher. 
The wisdom of  Maine's full participation policy is another matter. 
For a full comparison of participation by state see this chart..
In fact, standardized achievement tests show that Maine scores at or near the top nationally.  And Morgan Quitno's Education State Rankings, 2005-2006 ranks Maine at #5 best educated, right in line with spending the 5th most per capita on education. As we all know there is a difference between intelligence and education. As the Wizard of Oz stated, "I can't give you a brain but I can give you a diploma."  So, the article that generated this post must be ingested with a few grains of salt.
However, given the impetus of this article, I decided it would be fun and interesting to further muse on worsts, lowests, and most embarrassings about Maine. I had wondered if something was wrong in the State of Maine.
I did some research and found that the answer was MMMMaybe.
Our state motto is DIRIGO, Latin, "I Lead" and indeed we do lead in many things. 
Here is what I found.


We Are the Most Drugged Out State
According to the Morning Sentinel, January 4th of this year Maine residents enjoyed the highest addiction rate to opiates (which excludes heroin and morphine and I assume to be mostly Oxycontin, good old hillbilly heroin) in the country in 2008 with 386 persons out of 100,000 over the age of 12 treated. We were followed by Vermont at 331 and no other state close to those numbers with Delaware next at 149. But maybe we just have a great and enjoyable treatment program for drug addicts that everyone wants to experience! Word gets around. 
It must be understood that we are not talking about illicit (or illegal) drug use. The number one state for that is Alaska. Maine is only number 12, a good but not great effort in that field.  




We Are the Oldest and Whitest State
This Bangor Daily News story from 2009 revealed Census Bureau statistics that indicated Mainers are the oldest and "least racially diverse" meaning whitest, state in the nation. But it is a neck and neck race with Vermont. Maine also has the lowest percentage of children under 5, despite the fact that our child death rate is low and we rank 45th in that statistic.   We are almost number one in the lowest birth rate in the country with 10.3 live births per 1000, barely ahead of Vermont at 10.2. Who would want to bring a child into the world as a Mainer? I think I'll look up rates of impotence and frigidity in Maine. I suspect they are high. We are the most sparsely populated state.   But looking on the bright side, our lack of sexual activity has allowed us to enjoy very low sexually transmitted disease rates. We are #41 in Syphilis, #43 in Gonorrhea, and #48 in Chlamydia. Our HIV rate is very low with 2.7 diagnosis per 100,000 population in 2008. 
 For what it's worth, it is also revealed by statistics that Maine contains the highest percentage by far of baby boomers, of which I, admittedly, am one. 

Our Business Climate Is Execrable
Forbes Magazine has also declared the great state of Maine as the absolute worst state in which to do business.  What is the problem? Predictably, Forbes blames our high taxes.
I suspect that Maine is a great place to do business if you have been here a long long time and you know the right people. But if you are an innovative entrepreneurial outsider who wants to establish himself here you might not be welcomed with open arms. Maine is quite clannish.  I admit that is pure speculation, but it is speculation born of 35 years in the state.

We Are (By Some Measurements) The Highest Taxed State
Yes, Yes, I know statistics can be skewed according to the bias of selection. (See the first item in this post.) But some criteria put us as the NUMBER ONE TAX BURDENED STATE. Depending how you figure it we usually make the top five, the best effort I've seen is twelfth. What are we paying for? Probably a lot of it is infrastructure. We are a relatively large state with a very small population. Each of us has a proportionally greater amount of infrastructure to maintain than, say, Rhode Island, which  is also one of the most heavily taxed states. What is their excuse?

We Are Safe!
I don't want to look at just the dark side. Public records reveal that Maine is the second safest state in the land and we have the 5th lowest crime rate. It just goes to show that if you have an old, drugged out, and unsexy population which lacks in ambition, most people will have far too much inertia to be criminals. Maybe things will change when our shiny new casino is built.

I kid 'cause I love.

The Shelf of Mysteries

Super Bowl Halftime

The Eye

Of Horus

Is Upon You

Football, Au Revoir 

Allright! That's it for football and the mindless worship of the final game and congratulations to the Packers. Here's to next season (hoisting one last drink) if there is one. Let's hope the players and the owners can resolve their differences to do what both really want to do: make lots of money. One of those differences is lengthening the season to 18 games. But there are problems.

I understand why the players are not enthusiastic about the 18 game season and I think that the players should not have to play two more regular season games. These guys take enough punishment.
But we still have the problem of those pre-season games that everyone despises. I have a solution for implementing the 18 game season. Go with eighteen regular season games. Get rid of 2 exhibition, excuse me, pre-season games. But, you ask, how do we do this while not forcing the players to participate in two more games?

Require that every player on an NFL roster must have been given two weeks off by the end of the season. After the last game of the week on say, Tuesday morning, teams must announce rosters for the next week, taking into account that they must give everyone on the roster two weeks off by the end of the season. Players off the roster for that week would not be allowed to practice with the team.  This approach would require strategy on the part of the coaches, so they might not be on board with anything like this that makes their job harder than it is. But it would add to the hype for the week when a Bill Belichik  announces that Tom Brady is out for a game with the Raiders and they would get to play the disrespect card. All kinds of fun would ensue.

Sometimes these things would take care of themselves when guys get dinged up and need time off for injury. If you pick up a guy during the season via trade or waivers you would take into account whether he has had his personal bye weeks yet. It would be illegal to just cut a guy near the end of the season if he hasn't had his bye weeks yet. Rosters may have to expand a bit. This rule change would really help the game and give us more real football and  more income for the owners without taking advantage of the players.

Red Sox pitchers and catchers report a week from tomorrow.