Why Is Groundwater Leaking Into Fukushima?

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Saturday December 28, 2013 · 11:16 PM PST

2013/12/28 · 23:16

I hereby challenge the nuclear apologists on this site to explain why no wall has been built around the Fukushima nuclear power plants preventing ground water from entering the site.

The contamination of the Pacific is alarming.

Here is Arnie Gundersen on this subject:

http://fairewinds.org/...

Fukushima Threatens Humanity

Duckmg

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Saturday November 09, 2013 · 12:05 PM PST

2013/11/09 · 12:05

Folks writing about Fukushima have been troll rated and told to shut up when writing about the possible worst case scenario. This is a fact based community. This translates into no conjectures about Fukushima allowed.

I call BS. In science one often starts with the extreme to test a hypothesis. Calculus, for example, is the science of the extreme.

Now we have a professor at Yale claiming that Fukushima threatens humanity. I share his concern. How is it not possible to lose control at Fukushima?

This is An important political point. We need to do more at Fukushima. Why are we not following Arnie Gundersen's suggestion? Arnie suggests building a zeolite trench around the plant. This would prevent fresh water from running into the plant Making the contaminated water problem much more manageable.

http://fairewinds.org/...

I believe more resources need to be thrown at this disaster. Fukushima is certainly a much greater threat than Iran or Syria.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...
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Much more serious is the danger that the spent fuel rod pool at the top of the nuclear plant number four will collapse in a storm or an earthquake, or in a failed attempt to carefully remove each of the 1,535 rods and safely transport them to the common storage pool 50 meters away. Conditions in the unit 4 pool, 100 feet from the ground, are perilous, and if any two of the rods touch it could cause a nuclear reaction that would be uncontrollable. The radiation emitted from all these rods, if they are not continually cool and kept separate, would require the evacuation of surrounding areas including Tokyo. Because of the radiation at the site the 6,375 rods in the common storage pool could not be continuously cooled; they would fission and all of humanity will be threatened, for thousands of years.

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Is Fukushima Radiation Killing the Sardines?

Duckmg

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Monday November 04, 2013 · 9:05 PM PST

2013/11/04 · 21:05

Strange afflictions have beset animals on the West Coast since Fukushima. We have had polar bears, walruses and seals with patchy hair loss and oozing sores on their skin.

http://www.reuters.com/...

Now we have sardine and starfish population collapse.

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/...
... ... ...

Scientists say an outbreak of “sea star wasting disease,” an affliction that causes starfish to develop white lesions, lose arms, and eventually disintegrate, is spreading at a rapid rate from Southern California all the way up to Alaska.

The disease has killed off some 95 percent of orange and purple starfish that are commonly found in West Coast tide pool populations, according to the Associated Press.
... ... ...

Federal fisheries managers have cut projections for West Coast sardine harvests by two-thirds while scientists try to get a better handle on indications the population is entering a significant down cycle.

Duckmg

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Saturday October 12, 2013 · 6:34 PM PDT

2013/10/12 · 18:34

I have long been a Linux fanatic. Linux is an open source operating system which means all are allowed access to its code and all are allowed to modify its code. This is in opposition to Microsoft code which is secret and proprietary. We are not allowed access to Microsoft code nor are we allowed to modify Microsoft code.

Linus Torvalds posted the first Linux code online in the early 1990s. Soon with the collaboration of programmers throughout the world a very high quality Unix like open sourced operating system was developed that could boot on the Intel 80386 processor.

Many companies adopted Linux for servers and such but Linux never saw high demand for the desktop.

One would think that this Linux Operating system would have quickly competed with Microsoft Windows. Linux is free, whereas Windows costs money. If consumers had the choice between paying $800 for the Linux box and $900(or whatever Microsoft's markup) for the Windows box for exact same hardware, one would think that many consumers would have chosen the Linux system.

Consumers were never really given this choice. One seldom saw mainstream vendors pushing Linux. And one never saw Windows and Linux on the same hardware side by side at Best Buy.

Microsoft's marketing clout was too much for Linux.

But today some twenty years after the first days of Linux, we finally have competition for Microsoft and their closed source proprietary software.

Android which runs a Linux based kernel is a hot seller.

Most exciting of all, Google is now marketing Chromebooks which run on top of the Linux kernel. These laptops are selling like hotcakes. This is great news for the consumer.

Or is the consumer getting Scroogled?

The Samsung Chromebook has been on top of Amazon's best seller list since October when the machine debuted.

One new reason to choose a Chromebook is Microsoft's new dirty tricks with UEFI. If you buy a Windows 8 computer it is not easy by design to load an operating system other than Windows 8 on it. Some computers have been bricked after attempts to add an OS other than Windows 8. After doing a Google search, Win 8 computers have been bricked for all kinds of reasons.

Microsoft's excuse is security but this is nonsense. Chromebooks are friendly to different operating systems and they are much more secure than Windows. If you buy a Windows 8 machine, you are likely buying a crippled machine.

Here are some articles on UEFI:
http://bytesmedia.co.uk/...

Dr. Roy Schestowitz: I want to know how big a threat you think the so-called “secure” boot is considered to be to the Free software movement.
Dr. Richard Stallman: It’s a disaster. Well, except that it’s not secure boot that’s a disaster, it’s restricted boot. Those are not the same. When it’s front of the control of the user, secure boot is a security feature. It allows the user to control what programs can run on a machine and thus prevent — you might say — unexpected malware from running. We have to distinguish the unexpected malware such as viruses from the expected malware such as Windows or Mac OS or Flash Player and so on, which are also malware; they have features that hurt the user but users know what they are installing. In any case, what secure boot does is that it causes the machine to only work with (?) programs that are signed with a certain key, your keys. And as long as the user controls which keys they are, then it’s a security feature. However, it can be chained into a set of digital handcuffs when the user doesn’t control the keys. And this [is] happening.
Microsoft demands that ARM computers sold for Windows 8 be set up so that the user cannot change the keys; in other words, turn it into restricted boot. Now, this is not a security feature. This is abuse of the users. I think it ought to be illegal.
It’s a matter of control by the vendor of course, not control by the user himself
Exactly, and that’s why it’s wrong. That’s why non-free software is wrong. The users deserve to have control of their computers/

http://www.itwire.com/...

http://www.itworld.com/...

http://arstechnica.com/...

http://www.zdnet.com/...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/...

My review follows.

http://m.androidauthority.com/...

I had written this piece some time ago but never published it.

Recently, my Vista computer refused to boot. CHKDSK shows no errors and a Linux debian distribution will boot from a second hard drive on the computer. Apparently there is no way to fix this problem. It is really amazing that these poorly designed Windows systems have dominated computer desktops for so many years.

My recent irritation with Vista reminded me to publish this piece.

Duckmg

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Wednesday September 25, 2013 · 12:14 PM PDT

2013/09/25 · 12:14

I went to my neighborhood Whole Foods recently to purchase some Eden's chili which I always buy and the product was no longer on the shelf.

Eden's is the only canned food that I know of without BPA so I always buy it. So I called Eden's and asked why Whole Foods didn't carry the product and I asked them why they don't put the USDA organic label on their products.

The product was probably not on the shelf due to lack of sales, but the organic label was not on the can as something of a protest.

http://www.edenfoods.com/...
The most serious degradation of national organic standards occurred in October 2005. In a back room deal the Organic Trade Association lobbied Congress to legalize the adulteration of organic food with basically any toxic additive a manufacturer may want to use, including substances that do not need to appear on ingredient panels. More than 400,000 consumers contacted their government representatives asking them not to weaken organic standards in such a way, but agribusiness influences prevailed.

Duckmg

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Tuesday September 10, 2013 · 7:02 PM PDT

2013/09/10 · 19:02

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2-0 over Mexico

Duckmg

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Monday August 19, 2013 · 4:51 PM PDT

2013/08/19 · 16:51

From Reuters quoting experts, nobody knows how bad it can get.

http://www.reuters.com/...
No one knows how bad it can get, but independent consultants Mycle Schneider and Antony Froggatt said recently in their World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2013: "Full release from the Unit-4 spent fuel pool, without any containment or control, could cause by far the most serious radiological disaster to date."

So what happens if Fukushima goes critical, catches fire and burns for years? Why can't this happen?

It seems to me that positing the worst case might be a good idea because then maybe people will decide to do more to avoid a catastrophe at Fukushima.

Fukushima Irradiates the Pacific

Duckmg

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Monday August 19, 2013 · 10:06 AM PDT

2013/08/19 · 10:06

And the radiation is coming to America.

One scary video.

Billions could die.

http://www.zerohedge.com/...
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RT: Finally, what is the worst case scenario? What level of contamination are we looking at and how dire would the consequences be for the long-term health of the region?

CC: Extremely dire. This is a terrible answer to have to give, but the worst case scenario could play out in death to billions of people. A true apocalypse. Since we have been discussing Reactor 4, I'll stick to that problem in particular, but also understand that a weather event, power outage, earthquake, tsunami, cooling system failure, or explosion and fire in any way, shape, or form, at any location on the Fukushima site, could cascade into an event of that magnitude as well.

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Duckmg

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Friday July 05, 2013 · 9:08 PM PDT

2013/07/05 · 21:08

http://abclocal.go.com/...
"I tried to grab his arm, and he said, 'Mama,'" Dillon-Donald said. "And I looked down, and his shorts was red. He had on white shorts. They were red."

Donald's mother says doctors have had to remove her son's kidney, spleen, and pancreas, and more surgeries are likely needed.

What kind of life is this poor kid going to have now?

I think Smith and Wesson et al should cover these expenses.

Shame on all those that think we need easy access to guns in this country.

Where in the city can one shoot a gun without endangering lives? Why are guns even allowed in urban areas?

Do Renters Have Any Rights?

Duckmg

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Wednesday May 29, 2013 · 3:54 PM PDT

2013/05/29 · 15:54

I have a friend that just received a notice that her apartment is to be treated for roaches tomorrow.

This is in a suburb of Chicago with weak renter's rights.

Is there anything that can be done to stop this intrusion?

Duckmg

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Saturday February 16, 2013 · 12:43 PM PST

2013/02/16 · 12:43

How does rising housing prices help those that don't own a house?

And who is it that doesn't own houses? For the most part--Poor people.

So why is the government spending hundreds of billions if not trillions of dollars to raise the price of housing?

Is this some perverted form of trickle down economics? How come Democrats support these housing programs that screw over the poor?

And what about renters? Don't they count?

Duckmg

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Monday December 24, 2012 · 12:30 PM PST

2012/12/24 · 12:30

Another day and more senseless gun violence.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/...
WEBSTER, N.Y. — A gunman ambushed four volunteer firefighters responding to an intense pre-dawn house fire Monday morning outside Rochester, N.Y., killing two, wounding two others and then killing himself, authorities said. Police used an armored vehicle to evacuate more than 30 nearby residents.

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Why Is Groundwater Leaking Into Fukushima?

Fukushima Threatens Humanity

Is Fukushima Radiation Killing the Sardines?

Chromebooks

Is USDA Organic Really Organic?

USA QUALIFIES FOR WORLD CUP

How Bad Can Fukushima Get?

Fukushima Irradiates the Pacific

Shame On The Gun Lovers

Do Renters Have Any Rights?

Housing Prices

BREAKING: Police: NY gunman set 'trap' for firefighters