The Greater the Event, the Less we Hear ?

Silence is upon us.   Let us properly call that "selective silence".  


Why?  With the media frenzy that usually accompanies major events such as the nuclear disaster at Fukushima,  one might expect to see some expression of continued in the plight of Japan, but no.  The same strange abandonment of other man-made and natural disasters seems to disappear with with the same finesse from the media.  Is it too much to ask to be informed?  Radiation from Fukushima has already crossed North America, but officialdom, like the media, keeps it hushed.   Are we  "to glow before we know"  what is happening?  Is there a  "the greater the event, the less we hear"  edict hidden somewhere in government files?
Germany is  intelligently closing down ALL nuclear plants by 2020.  North America is strangely " silent"  about it  instead,  no such plans HERE.
  We don't have to wonder why. The invoking  of common sense itself would be an earth-shattering event that would have to be silenced.
Does wild game  in North America have to become "polluted and unfit for human consumption"  with Fukushima radiation   like the wild boars ARE ALREADY  today in Germany--from 900 miles away,  --the Chernobyl disaster 25 years ago--before it becomes a "news story" again? 


The Haiti  earthquake disaster may as well have occurred  a hundred years ago;  the "live"  victims may be healed, but they still live in tent cities,  the city, reduced to rubble  is NOT yet rebuilt,  the aid  "disappearing" into the strangling, secret pockets  of the bureaucracy.  Has that story, too, been "worn out" by the media, no longer worth contaminating a news page or computer screen?
Strange silence is emerging over the  Iraq war,   --"winding down", is it?   Or is it in fact really just another very expensive military failure that will be glossed over,  the new government just as corrupt as Saddam himself, with all the facts hidden from the public?
Never mind that war, we have NEW ones. We line them up, one after the other. 

The New Normal: Expect the Unexpected

Yes, it is May the 1st today,  yet it is not warm by any stretch of the wishful imagination.   Cold and windy, steady as she goes.   Here in NW Ontario the sky is bright, but still tending to be overcast after yesterday's rain.   The sun will come out eventually.  We hope. 

Somehow it seemed gratifying yesterday to get rain instead of  snow.  Much better. We got the shoveling kind  ungraciously bestowed upon us a couple of days ago.  Complaining?

No, not really, -- but...but........C'mon,  a couple of inches of snow wasn't that bad, but it's supposed to be spring, isn't it? My crocuses are in bloom, after all.  Beautiful, too, down there in the snow. 

Regardless, our luck of the draw  here  seems a lot better than the treatment  Mother Nature has been bestowing upon other areas of North America. Vast areas of Manitoba are flooding, farmer's fields are lakes, literally,  basements full of water, and the water isn't even crested yet --with more to come.
I'm feeling lucky and blessed at this point, -- but  I'm guessing we, too,  have to expect the unexpected,  as the new normal.

Internationally,  with radiation still spewing from Fukushima,  a disaster of proportions  that perhaps now exceeds that of Chernobyl, the end of that disaster is nowhere  in sight.   Who would think that an earthquake coupled with a mere tsunami  could eventually endanger the whole of Japan  and other countries as well ?  The nuclear didn't think so.     Expect the unexpected,  it's not a matter of IF disasters will happen, but when. 

In the Southern US, over 340 fatalities--and still counting, with many people missing -- have been caused by perhaps the worst tornado season on record.  Total destruction, a swath of damage that looks a lot like the aftermath of the tsunami in Japan.
Still,  a tornado or two,  perchance a dozen, or three dozen ---but 130 or more in one day?
Isn't that just a bit overdone, Mother Nature?   
Heavily populated areas were hit badly.  Expect the unexpected. 

At Incoming Bytes, our hearts go out to the families of those lost in these terrible tragedies. May they find comfort in their faith.

In Canada, our unwanted  election is May 2nd .   It was a pretty dull campaign, a real yawner, and  the  Harper Conservatives were expecting to garner a majority government.  Guess what. "Were "  is the key word.

Surprise, surprise.  Jack Layton's  New Democratic Party has surged past the Liberals in the last few official polls --  not only moving into 2nd place  to threaten the Conservative majority, but  perhaps .....the unthinkable, could they end up in 1st place?

Maybe  there is some  historical stuff coming up tomorrow.     Surprise, people,-- just  expect the  unexpected.

South of the border again,  Donald Trump, yes, that smiling Donald,  the one and only  Donald --seems to be running for the Presidency of the United States?  Why not, isn't politics a reality show anyway?  
 Maybe he'll bring a whole roster of  "apprentices" to the White House, cute little Presidential trainees. ...I wonder.
If an ex-actor can be successful  president,  why can't  a successful entrepreneurial showman be President?  The Terminator  got to be governor, didn't he? Anything is possible.
  The Donald knows how to fire people. " You're fired" he says, pointing his finger at the unlucky outgoing soul.   Sighs of relief all around the table.  Gary Busey, was the latest statistic,  he was apparently too likeable but just a bit crazy and not a Leader, so  no apprenticeship at the White House for him, --but think about it, a White House with  glitz and spangles and "you're fired! "  ---and big hair.     
Barack, better expect the Unexpected there too.  Maybe it will snow. 

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Unlimited Contamination but only Limited Hope ?

The ocean around Fukushima,  Japan is contaminated with radioactivity levels almost unheard of,    at  5,000,000 times the legal limit,(read 5 MILLION times the legal limit)   and even 7,000,000 times the legal limit, the numbers,  which are unbelievable,   change daily depending upon the "engineer's solution to pollution, which is dilution".  
     Water, seaweed, fish,  the --whole works is contaminated, throwing a very large potential  wrench into the future of  the Japanese fishing and seafood industry for many years to come.  Countries are already banning Japanese sea products.
     Clearly fish that are contaminated to the point they are not fit for human consumption  will not only be unsafe for humans, but  unfit for the natural food chain, and in turn,  unfit  to produce and support  offspring, which may undergo mutation; the further up the food chain the contamination goes, the higher the concentrations shall be. 
    Realistically, at  this sad  point in history  there is  no predictable, safe end for this tragedy, there is literally no end in sight to this problem.  We shall undoubtedly  praise God when brave men risking life and limb  stop nuclear leaks, and the world flinches, but looks away as Japan dumps 15,000 tons of radioactive water into the ocean, and will do so again, repeatedly if necessary. Dumping contaminated water will make more room for more cooling water  required, which will in turn become contaminated, ad infinitum,  and we shall be reluctantly  obligated to turn face when they  have to dump THAT too. Humanity will clearly "look away" again and again.
    If such an occurrence happened in the middle of the United States of America, or for example, in Canada, along Lake Ontario, at Pickering, where would WE dump 15,000 tons of radioactive water?  Into Lake Ontario while nobody is looking?  How about at Darlington?  
     Let's face it, it might be a one in 20 MILLION chance of anything happening, but people DO win lotteries.  It therefore becomes a BET, a sickening gamble,  where the nuclear industry bets their safety record against the lives of MILLIONS of Canadians and Americans.   
     Can the the nuclear industry world-wide guarantee there will never be another nuclear incident? Clearly not, therefore they have no moral authority to put our lives on the betting table.  
End of story.
      It seems this should be the final death knell of the nuclear industry, three strikes, you're out;  the only logical, viable, and sensible strategy is to source  energy from clean, renewable sources, wind, solar, hydrogen, and other clean technologies, --but we will not do that, clean technology is not exciting enough or  daring enough to lure big money,  it is not challenging enough to revered, arrogant scientists who pride themselves in challenging, big scientific feats.     Being closer to fools,  sheep that follow  and lemmings that race to jump to their deaths over high cliffs, civilization  will likely continue to ALLOW the dirty nuclear industry to keep polluting, more, and more.    The question is why?  in the old west,  reckless, dangerous people were quickly dealt with by frontier justice.
     There is facing us,  therefore, unlimited contamination at this point, coupled with very limited hope. Why? A lesson has not been learned,  there is already grumbling "commentary" suggesting that a  return to coal and other technologies would "damage the environment" by contributing to global warming, the old 2 degree change in world temperature argument.  Such proponents of nuclear energy suggest shall exploit that myth and  conveniently "save us all"  and avoid that problem by keeping the nuclear industry "alive and well"  even if it is as dangerous as hell."  . 
     At Incoming Bytes we believe building any more nuclear reactors is not a reasonable option under any circumstance; it is not a reasonable option under any terms of reference, since all nations receive sunshine; all nations have winds. 
     Who would be  glaringly  foolish enough  to resurrect coal technology when SOLAR and WIND technology is so easily available?  Who can ignore the fact that Spain, as an example, gets the majority of it's power from solar sources?   
     We can complain endlessly that it takes large amounts of money to build wind generators and solar stations.  It costs money to build a  solar system on your roof  that will run your home and pump clean solar energy into the grid,  and it costs about a million dollars to build a very large wind generator. Shall we conveniently ignore the proven fact that it costs many $BILLIONS to build an unsafe nuclear reactor that is virtually guaranteed to fail at some point in the future? 
The NEW questions for the day are: 
" Where are WE going to dump OUR radioactive, contaminated water?"   Where are we going to dispose of spent fuel bundles?  

       Ans:    NOT in MY back yard, you're not.  

It is not a matter of  "if" we will have to dump some radioactive water, and dispose of thousands of highly radioactive fuel rods.   It's just a matter of WHEN.   
You'll have to figure it out.  The Japanese people have proven that to be the ultimate truth. 
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Which Does Humanity need worse: A Bucket List or Mop and Bucket?

The Light of Hope

   Yes, we are contemplating human folly yet again, as we read more about the ongoing disaster at Fukushima, Japan. Why?   Because as global citizens we are obliged to make ourselves aware what is happening, and not allow ourselves  to be misled or distracted by less than honest propaganda,  red herrings, elections and politics, or manufactured war.


    We have been reading  that scientifically, carefully-measured  radiation levels around the damaged  nuclear reactors continue  to rise  in spite of best efforts  of our  "world-class nuclear community" and others  to contain the problem.  Radiation levels from the four  seriously damaged nuclear reactors, it turns out, are already  more than a bit disconcerting. 
    At over 4300 times the maximum allowable  limit, local sea water is  unimaginably contaminated,  but will optimistically be "diluted",  --or so advises the informed nuclear establishment.  Yet another "out of sight, out of mind" solution is the temptation; dilution, the engineer's dream.  Is everyone  deluded enough to imagine sea life wouldn't  mind a little radiation after all, --is that the message we shall pass to our grandchildren ? 
    Well, all right. Let's  stop it quickly and clean it up instead....  A traditional mop and pail isn't exactly going to do the trick.  How about some wishful thinking, a bucket list ?  All human beings need a bucket list of wonderful plans and objectives to be completed and achieved prior to heading into the Great Beyond.  
    Now "jumpers", brave souls -- volunteers from around the globe, Europe and North America, dedicated, serious men seemingly with a death wish to save humanity itself -- are volunteering to work on  the reactors  to attempt to stem the flow of radiation and clean up.  Reportedly,  water in the tunnels under the reactor is far too dangerous to step  into.  Brave men struggled in Chernobyl, valiantly trying to do the same thing.  They died trying, too.      
In this tragedy, which does humanity need worse, a bucket list or a very large high-tech  mop and pail?  It seems both, but  perhaps a miracle would be more appropriate.  I wonder;  since scientists and technology created the problem,  are creationists obligated to solve it ?  There will be plenty of opportunity to hope and much reason to pray.
  Over in Europe,  wild boars  harvested in the forests of Germany--  over 1500 kilometers (950 miles) from Chernobyl  are now found to be contaminated with Cesium-137,  a radioactive isotope originating from the disaster at  Chernobyl  that  still remains a serious problem after a "mere"  25 years . The mushrooms and plant life eaten by the wild boars are highly contaminated. Radiation levels in the meat of the animals and the plants are reportedly thousands of times higher than normal.  What does that tell us?  Should we  close our eyes to that statistic?  Play ostrich?   Radiation from Fukushima  has already been detected in Canada and the United States. Should we believe our "officials" that say, "nothing to worry about".   Should we allow "officials", unknown to us,  to silently raise "allowed radiation levels" in consumable products, protecting the nuclear industry using a blank cheque written on the health of all of humanity?  At Incoming Bytes we think not. The time for truth has come.

The sad fact of the matter is,  if Chernobyl is any example, neither "bucket list" or high-tech mop & pail  treatment, no matter how well applied, will offer a quick fix for the growing problem in Japan. 
     Let us jest  and contemplate briefly the commandeering of a fix,  a solution, smiling, brave jumpers,  a couple of garden hoses, sprinklers,  a few  helicopter water drops  --and a few more brilliant-devised systems to pump ever more water into the reactors  to keep things cool.   Water IS required for cooling so the damaged reactor cores  won't  overheat, melt down further, releasing ever more radiation in the process of melting and burning.   Burning  releases radiation into the atmosphere rapidly as the nuclear fuel  burns merrily away, hot enough to melt holes in zirconium fuel tubes, casings and steel containment. 
    Pumping more water obviously introduces  more water into the reactor, which  ultimately  becomes contaminated.  More contaminated cooling water.   We don't have to ask where the water will go, do we ?   If it does not evaporate into atmosphere as contaminated steam boiled off from the extreme  heat, it  will  leak out into the sea, and contaminate an even larger volume of  seawater, spreading ever further. 
 An engineered disaster with catastrophic results.  Nature may not forgive.  Salmon  and killer-whales, mollusks and seals, sea-cucumber and starfish alike may be easy to see, glowing in the dark as they mutate to the last individual, for many years. 
 "The deadliest catch" is already being harvested.  The "knowledgeable, educated, wise and informed global nuclear community is harvesting precisely the crop they cultivated.  Out-of-control radiation.  Water or not, at best, it is  a catch-22, and a deadly one.


     What ultimately may be a far darker harbinger of things to come than mere sea-water, radioactive numbers and glowing sea-cucumbers  --is the stark, cold,  right-now, in-your face reality rescuers are dealing with  in the contaminated zone ;  radiation levels in the  exclusion zone are so high that rescuers, in protective gear and equipped with radiation alarms,  cannot remain in the area for long enough to be efficient,  even to do the necessary and grisly job of recovering  now-contaminated bodies of the victims from the endless rubble of that horrific earthquake and tsunami. Cremation of such bodies releases further radiation into the atmosphere.  
    The area may ultimately be so contaminated with radiation that it could be a "no man's land"  for a very long time to come.  The beautiful lands will longer produce milk, agricultural products or  any food fit for human consumption as they have done for centuries.  Fish and seafood from the area will no longer be fit for human consumption.  
 Tokyo is only a couple of hundred kilometers from Fukushima.  Let us not even contemplate that potential future health risk and disaster. Ultimately, humanity must pay the piper for arrogance.

     There is ONE genuine solution for the problem of damaged nuclear reactors and the inevitable nuclear crises that develop from them, but globally, humanity must have the resolve and ingenuity to change  direction, and become hopeful and clever enough to adapt change  universally --and immediately.   
The correct solution is to actually learn from the disasters at Three-Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima--and  NEVER build another one. 
--Not in Japan, not in Darlington, Ontario, and nowhere else on the globe either. The price is too high in terms of potential danger, terms of health, and in terms of cost to humanity.  

The truth always comes out.   Nuclear reactors are NO LONGER an option under ANY TERMS OF REFERENCE. That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it.