13: News to Muse
1. So I had just seen “The Shipping News,” the movie where Kevin Spacey plays a man thrown into a job as a newspaper reporter covering shipping news and car accidents in Newfoundland. The next morning I was on my way to do an interview for a story on a small family farm for the local paper when I passed a crowd of people and saw that a car that had driven off the road and into a marshy ditch. I thought for a moment and then said to myself, I definitely don’t want to cover car accidents.
2. Although the next day, I did pull over to snap a picture of a creek that had overflowed onto a dirt road. (It ended up on the front page).
4. I hope the nuclear power plant disasters in Japan will bring the dangers of nuclear power to the forefront, like the fact that they are susceptible to natural disasters, could be targets for terrorists and that there is no safe place to store the radioactive waste used to make them. I hope the events in Japan kill the campaign to mine uranium here in Virginia and elsewhere.
5. “The Chernobyl disaster killed nearly one million people worldwide from nuclear radiation exposure. Emissions from this one reactor exceeded a hundred-fold the radioactive contamination of the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. One nuclear reactor can pollute half the globe. Chernobyl fallout covers the entire Northern Hemisphere.” More HERE.
6. Dr. Dave Applegate, an expert with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), says that the planetary axis was permanently shifted by about 10 inches (25.4 centimeters) as a result of the earthquake in Japan. Early measurements have shown that the Japanese shorelines were permanently shifted by as much as 7.8 feet (2.4 meters). The ensuing tsunamis reached a maximum height of about 32 feet (nearly 10 meters).” More HERE.
7. What’s wrong with THIS picture? American taxpayers are paying for almost half of the research and development for drugs to be marketed and sold globally and, yet, can’t afford decent health care.
8. THIS appeals to my love of kaleidoscopes and dancing and reminds me of how much I enjoyed the June Taylor dancers, who opened the Jackie Gleason show, when I was a girl.
9. Saturday’s protest against union busting in Madison Wisconsin involved a parade of more than 30 tractors driven by farmers supporting the union workers. Thousands of people lining the sidewalks cheered as tractors rolled by bearing signs with messages such as “Planting the seeds for a big season of recalls. Another tractor towing a manure spreader carried a sign reading, “Walker’s bill belongs here” – a reference to Republican Governor Scott Walker.
10. Of course its unlikely that the investors pushing to mine uranium in Virginia will be deterred by anything but the falling global price of uranium, so this is good news: “Shares of Australia’s top uranium miners – some of the world’s biggest – fell sharply on Monday after several incidents at Japanese nuclear power generators over the weekend raised concerns about future of nuclear power and demand for nuclear fuel.” More HERE.
11. From an e-list friend: “Our Navy, trying to deliver humanitarian aid, was exposed to low level radiation. The damned reactor is keeping aid from people who desperately need it. Japan has 55 reactors, the USA 104. I wish I had the answer to supplying energy for the world. I do not. But I do not see how, as a planet, we can continue to embrace nuclear energy as an answer to future energy needs. What other energy source can you think of that holds such destructive power?”
12. Can it happen here? Southern California has two nuclear power plants on the coastline in a tsunami zone and near earthquake faults.
13. From my dharmacratic friend Will Bason: God helps those who help each other.
More participating in 13 on Thursday HERE.
March 16th, 2011 11:40 pm
Some of the NZ rescue workers have tested positive for radiation exposure too. It’s certainly a very worrying time.
March 17th, 2011 12:12 am
My heart breaks for the people of Japan. I missed Saturday’s rally due to a visit from out-of-town friends, but between the tractor parade and labor rally, they estimate the crowd at 100,000. Would have been cool to be there but, I admit, that’s about 90,800 too many people for me (I’m more used to the smaller crowds of Art Fair and Concerts on the Square).
March 17th, 2011 1:19 am
It sure is an uncertain time in the world right now. Let’s pray it serves as a wake-up call to other nuclear power plants to get their proverbial sh*t together.
I can’t imagine how it feels to live in Japan right now. My heart goes out to them.
March 17th, 2011 6:34 am
It’s so very scary — the news in Japan. Like many others, I wish we could do away with Nuclear Power. It’s one of those things that we barely keep contained. Prayers go out to Japan.
March 17th, 2011 7:31 am
The world has gone mad. Not because of earthquakes or tsunamis, but because of greed. Thanks for pointing it out!
March 17th, 2011 7:33 am
I doubt this will stop use of nuclear power. We are so dependent on power in our society that we need every method we can have. It is just the results of all our actions that are now coming home to roost.
March 17th, 2011 10:51 am
We always watched Jackie Gleason when I was a kid too!
To get a perspective on what’s going on in Japan from someone who’s living it, check out this post on my friend Koreen’s blog:
http://winnswindow.blogspot.com/2011/03/dai.html
Wendy
March 17th, 2011 11:30 am
Story on a New York power plant on a fault line that the governor there is proposing to close down: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/cuomo-wants-indian-point-_n_836982.html
March 17th, 2011 2:11 pm
#6 is just so amazing, really, really amazing!
March 17th, 2011 5:07 pm
most definitely on that disaster wake up– Oregon of all places is another fault place??
March 17th, 2011 9:07 pm
xo!
March 17th, 2011 9:51 pm
9 & 13. I can’t bring myself to talk more about Wisconsin right now but 9 & 13.
I wish I had an answer to the world energy crisis, but I don’t. And to be truthful, I’m not convinced that nuclear energy in and of itself is a terrible thing, the fact that we treat nuclear energy like any other energy source is a terrible thing. Nuclear power plants aren’t something we can half-ass when it comes to safety, training and longterm protection. It may indeed be the power source of the future, but the technology of the present is obviously not sufficeint enough to do it safely and we need to back off until we can protect the population. Sigh.
On an upnote. I’m calling today my “13 Page Free Read”. That’s not entirely accurate but I’m part of a larger blog hop doing free reads and giving away a grand prize of a Kindle 3. I wanted my T13 folks to have a shot at it so I’m spreading the word. 🙂
Happy TT,
~Xakara
Free Read/Kindle 3 Contest
March 17th, 2011 10:24 pm
Living in Southern California…it feels like the WORLD is coming to an end. NOTHING is going right—-Absolutely Nothing! Wherever I turn—there is disaster. What is the point in going on??? I am almost 80 years old….I cannot live through too many more disasters. I have lost four (4) people who were so very very dear and important to me, in the last three (30) years…..!!! And all I see around me is one disaster after anoher. Japan, Wisconsin, The Tea Party Nut-Cases….HELP!!!!!!
It’s all too much.
March 20th, 2011 12:51 pm
13. oh, like improvement.
12. we can be such dumb monkeys. here people cluck over california and b.c. being earthquake zones and yet people live there yet Ottawa is in a lowlands and a fault line as well. water levels go up and we’re atlantis and with our river having nuclear power plants of Chalk River leaking before anything happens.
7. yes, hard to figure. why would not dentistry, psychiatry, massage and all health care needs not be covered and subsidized more than our war machines?
March 21st, 2011 10:37 am
the news is so disheartening and overwhelming i can barely stand to watch it anymore. we suffer at our own hands…constantly.