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March 6, 2011 at 3:38 pm
Dr. Doom
I wonder how the spread of democratic revolutions will affect arms sales to the ME and future gas prices at home? Will those contracts be honored and at what price point does the US economy have a coronary? Will the end times look like a hollowed out version of the present day, the TV blaring but no one at home or with enough energy left to reach the remote, with the cat eating the last of the cheetos stuck behind the couch?
March 6, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Dr. Doom
Forgot to mention that for us, $3.50 per gallon for regular gas is cheap. We’re paying north of $3.70 now. Biodiesel is over $4.00.
March 6, 2011 at 4:21 pm
Uncle Remus
Mmmm, cat.
If the economy did have a coronary, how would we know? The MSM isn’t going to tell anyone – even Charlie Sheen isn’t dumb enough to let THAT cat out of the bag. Dr. Ben has us on life support already.
The inflationistas are starting Mardi Gras early – some are even hyper-ventilating.
An uprising in Saudi Arabia is the one that matters. I touched on this in my most recent post. It would make all the other ME uprising/revolutions pale in comparison because of what is at stake for the US (and all that that infers in the ME).
March 6, 2011 at 4:23 pm
Uncle Remus
Doom, I am paying about $3.50 a gal. for regular w/o ethanol in flyover. With 10% ethanol it is about 14 cents less per gal.
March 6, 2011 at 5:25 pm
Dr. Doom
“An uprising in Saudi Arabia is the one that matters.”
I’ll have to mose over to your blog and read that post. Here’s a prediction and a revelation: If democratic revolution visits SA, look for US boots on the ground there, “to protect the oil infrastructure from terrorists”. Where will they come from so quickly? Why Afghanistan, of course, where they hold up pretending to look for the “real killers of 9-11″, you know, out there protecting OJ while he continues in his relentless search for the one-armed man.
March 6, 2011 at 6:03 pm
Uncle Remus
Doomy, yuse got some moderatin’ waitin’
March 6, 2011 at 6:06 pm
doomphd
UR, I know. I have some login issues to resolve with wordpress. I got your messages on email.
March 6, 2011 at 11:29 pm
Dr. Doom
Stupid wordpress suggests a new, shorter handle. I go along, reset my password. Then all hell breaks loose and I’m locked out of my own blog. As JR used to say, nigger, nigger, nigger. May actually have to call a real human to get it straight.
March 10, 2011 at 8:22 am
Uncle Remus
[crickets]
March 10, 2011 at 2:12 pm
dave
March 10, 2011 at 2:50 pm
dave
germans are fucking genius, but they keep losing wars. that’s what happens when you don’t have enough oil.
March 10, 2011 at 9:37 pm
Dr. Doom
dave, for a minute there I thought jetman was going to run up and pat those stunt girls on their butts. oh well, it was interesting to watch, anyway.
March 11, 2011 at 6:28 am
MOU
Tsunami coming Dr. Dooms way. Good luck.
March 11, 2011 at 10:25 am
Dr. Doom
hey, it’s 5 AM here and all is well. up watching footage of muddy waves throwing cars and ships around like they were bath toys over in Japan. went to bed last night to the sound of tsunami sirens. recall that we are safe up on our perch from all but the infamous megatsunami.
March 11, 2011 at 3:55 pm
EEofDC
Hey Doom-
Was just going to ask you what you thought was up with all the recent Kileau activity boost… guess I got my answer.
March 11, 2011 at 9:16 pm
Dr. Doom
EE, it’s interesting that there was quite a lull in earthquake and tsunami activity since about 1964 (the Anchorage, Alaska earthquake) and moron recently. Now it’s acting up again.
March 12, 2011 at 7:18 am
dave
i think that it’s like i’ve often said, the problem is industrial/agricultural humans qua humanity, not humanity per se.
March 12, 2011 at 8:19 am
dave
worth reading, if you like theory of history and that sort of thing.
http://www.ribbonfarm.com/2011/03/10/the-return-of-the-barbarian/#more-1968
March 12, 2011 at 9:20 am
GB
In my 20′s I wanted to become a falconer and especially an austringer. I passed a state exam to begin getting licensed and contacted a master falconer, as required. Learning the costs and commitment involved convinced me that the sport was truly best suited for a wealthy person with a large estate, or a barbarian.
March 12, 2011 at 9:55 am
dave
yeah gb, by his thinking you’re not enough of a sociopath. or by his terminology, an embedded high barbarian, i guess.
March 12, 2011 at 10:28 am
GB
Yep. I still do retain a bit of the hunter/gatherer savage in me, though…and you do, too.
March 12, 2011 at 12:10 pm
GB
Actually, you could make an acceptable barbarian, come to think of it.
March 12, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Dr. Doom
dave, the philosophical barbarian. like Ghankis Khan, i guess, who once defined happiness as “having the tears of your former, late enemy’s wife fall on your face as she lies on top of you” or something to that effect.
March 12, 2011 at 3:19 pm
dave
yeah, i think that i’m way more of a savage than anything. all my life, i’ve worked only to protect my leisure. this can be very taxing when you’re born a slave in a slave(agro/industrial) society
March 12, 2011 at 3:23 pm
dave
“having the tears of your former, late enemy’s wife fall on your face as she lies on top of you” or something to that effect.
i don’t know doom. i really am a live and let live kinda guy. just don’t fuck with my free time; and all my time is my free time.
March 12, 2011 at 4:57 pm
Dr. Doom
i hear you dave. i just admire the heck out of old Ghankis for being so damn good at his chosen profession. too bad they didn’t go all the way into europe. then the world would not have had to wait until the french colonized indochina to produce beautiful french-asian women with continental attitude.
me-love-you-long-time types.
March 12, 2011 at 5:08 pm
Dr. Doom
Dear JR, did you stop drinking? That would explain a few things. If so, well, good for you. I support your new lifestyle, just drop us a few moron lines once in awhile, okay? We promise not to corrupt you, cross our dark bloody hearts. Really.
Hey, where’s that damn rabbit? Off with Bif?
March 13, 2011 at 6:19 am
dave
i kinda think that the profession chose him. he had no choice in the matter.
March 13, 2011 at 1:02 pm
Dr. Doom
yeah, like father, like son. except sometimes events and decisions make things go sideways. alex the great, for example. his dad would have been proud if he had just continued to rule macedonia and perhaps greece. but no, alex decides he wants to see the world, and arranges an armed tour. then, he gets lucky and conquers persia. now he has to see what he’s got. so he goes further and further out there, until monsoons and probably exhaustion, plus the unease that they were getting further and further out there, stops him. i mean, if they had kept going they would have made it to indochina, and his advance intel would have kept feeding him moron tantelizing bits about china, or perhaps japan, australia, new zealand, etc.
so, i think you’re correct about no choice, but once in your place, emontional decisions, perhaps posing as logical ones, can take you quite far. one hell of a roadtrip that guy had.
March 16, 2011 at 7:55 am
Uncle Remus
‘On March, at an European Union meeting in Brussels to discuss the potential of a no-fly zone for Libya, Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the press: “We do not want to get sucked into a war in North Africa.” Given the experiences of Rommel during 1940-1943, who rolled the dice masterfully in Libya yet ultimately lost, Westerwelle’s attitude is understandable.
Third, it has not escaped press attention that Gaddafi is a child of the Western Desert campaign, born in 1942 near the town of Sirte (on Libya’s Gulf of Sidra coast, halfway between Tripoli and Benghazi). Rommel’s forces swept east through Sirte in January 1942 en route to take British defenses at El Agheila, passing through Brega and then on to take Benghazi on January 29, 1942. This week, Gaddafi may be leafing through the field marshal’s attack manual.’
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MC17Ak04.html
March 16, 2011 at 11:39 am
dave
so the japs are learning the hard way about what happens to spent nuclear fuel rods when left uncooled. from what i understand we have pools of this stuff scattered all over the place. our chance to learn will happen soon enough, i’d say.
March 16, 2011 at 11:41 am
dave
so, i think you’re correct about no choice, but once in your place, emontional decisions, perhaps posing as logical ones, can take you quite far.
all decisions, without exception, are emotional. logic is just stories that you make up about them after the fact.
March 16, 2011 at 12:15 pm
Dr. Doom
yah, let’s see if the smart monkeys finally decide to place those spent fuel rods in a secure place, like the Nevada test site, and quit dilly tallying while our time as a civilized, organized and energized group runs out. politics.
still yet, those japanese planners are looking rather dumb these days. orlov has a good piece posted with a recommendation. nukes would not save our fossil fuel decline, anyway same goes for all the alternatives. go coal, morons.
March 16, 2011 at 12:40 pm
dave
mou might like this site.
i started at level 2 with 43 rounds in 20 minutes, strict form, slow(ish) and deliberate, no cheating.
http://www.simplefit.org/workout.html
March 16, 2011 at 12:50 pm
dave
yah, let’s see if the smart monkeys finally decide to place those spent fuel rods in a secure place, like the Nevada test site, and quit dilly tallying while our time as a civilized, organized and energized group runs out.
haha.
March 16, 2011 at 3:33 pm
dave
haha, so when the wet storage is full, the fucking monkeys move the stuff to dry storage. that’s a lot better.
http://www.nrc.gov/waste/spent-fuel-storage/dry-cask-storage.html
March 16, 2011 at 7:51 pm
Uncle Remus
“We all Major Kong now.” – Fukushima nuke plant worker.
March 16, 2011 at 9:36 pm
Dr. Doom
@ Remus, Major Kong = ???
March 17, 2011 at 2:37 am
Dr. Doom
Suffer, Suffer Die, No Better For You
From a memoir in progress
© 2002 Dave Archer / All Rights Reserved
A year out of high school, and only months after my wonderful painting teacher, Phil Paradise, advised me to shun the “Beatniks” of San Francisco’s North Beach, I sat in the Enigma Cafe in the heart of bohemia sharing a small table with infamous Beat painter, Rick Barton.
It was an enigma.
I’d been hanging around Barton for a couple of weeks. That night I looked across the table at my new Master and brazenly announced, “I’ve chosen YOU”.
From deep in the shadow of his beret, Rick’s eyeball rose over the horizon of his cheekbone like the Harvest Moon, then grinning like a Day of the Dead skull Barton said, “I’m cer-ti-fied you know.”
Missing my cue to run I said, “Cer-ti-fied?”
“Yes,” he answered: “P-Q 109 — Bellevue.”
Taking in a hard pull on the Pall Mall cigarette protruding from an antler holder clinched in his jaw, he leaned over the table and exhaled directly into my face adding, “Paranoid psy-cho-tic … I have it in writing”.
“Oh, that’s OK,” I said, in my best Snow White voice, “I don’t mind”.
“Ah … but you will …,” he chided, “ah, but you will”.
And ah … but I did.
Photo by Harold La Vigne © 1964 – Rick Bartonin one of his infamous “Barton’s Rooms”. Notice all the line paintings on the wall behind him.
Cheap advice: If you “choose” a lonely paranoid psychotic as a mate, (even after Mephistopheles waves you off at the airport), make sure you’re packing at least a stacked Derringer and a couple of pints of cop-quality pepper spray, as long as you keep it hidden. A paranoid psychotic will steal anything: GOLD first, then silver, paper money, and weapons, in that order, and call it “reaportionment” and use a knife to keep you from getting it back.
March 17, 2011 at 2:41 am
Dr. Doom
Oh, THAT Major Kong…
March 17, 2011 at 7:32 am
dave
i think this may be ee’s new gig.
http://i.imgur.com/2bMSY.gif
March 19, 2011 at 4:55 am
Dr. Doom
dave, i think JR either stopped drinking or got a prefrontal lobotomy. what do you thonk?
did bif eat that rabbit? i mean, WHF? are they off fighting zirconium cladding fires in Fukushima?
March 19, 2011 at 7:44 am
dave
i don’t know doom. i’d hate to think of anyone going through life with out a drink.
March 19, 2011 at 7:45 am
dave
you can see what that’s done to ee, i think.
March 19, 2011 at 8:23 am
dave
anyway, i’m sure that all of here, all 2, or maybe 3, have seen similar videos by this time. but hey, once more can’t hurt, i guess.
http://www.meatvideo.com/
March 19, 2011 at 1:05 pm
Autonomous Unit
meat video of a different sort.
March 19, 2011 at 1:41 pm
dave
yeah, we’re all meat, industrial meat noless.
March 20, 2011 at 8:56 am
dave
cute baby
March 20, 2011 at 8:59 am
dave
http://img693.imageshack.us/img693/668/asslaugh.jpg
March 20, 2011 at 12:47 pm
theroachman
My year and a half with out a computer is over. My life as a computer ludite is a life I will not miss.
So on my first day on the computer my Mom says from her contacts in the Forest Service air tankers pilots that they sent two planes to Fukushima after getting extra equipment at Vandenberg on Friday but she has not heard of anything since.
This being the only non paranoid place that I could think of that may have a clue is to why they would need boraide or if this rumor was even true, I thought I would ask.
March 20, 2011 at 12:51 pm
theroachman
This blew me away and will for some time.
March 20, 2011 at 1:41 pm
Dr. Doom
Well, personally, I’m just waiting until all that chloride in the seawater they’ve been flooding the cores with corrodes the stainless steel plumbing and all Hell breaks loose, so to speak.
Roach, the boraide is used to suck up loose neutrons so the accumulated fuel pellets don’t “go nuclear” or pass a criticality threashold and blow the radioactive shit all over the place.
March 20, 2011 at 5:06 pm
Dr. Doom
truck drivers wanted:
http://www.asahi.com/national/gallery_e/view_photo.html?national-pg/0319/TKY201103190311.jpg
March 20, 2011 at 9:59 pm
theroachman
Those videos off to the right are far better than anything I have seen on the US MSN. Wish I knew Japaness.
Great info on the boraide thanks. I will tell my folks to watch for it. Still waiting to hear from one other friend in Japan. I will have my Mom ask if they have seen anything there. From the vids on Asahi we here in the States miss a lot. Go figure.
March 20, 2011 at 10:10 pm
theroachman
Dr there is a whole video connected to your photo. I did not know if you seen it. Im guessing you did not see because its effin crazy.
http://video.asahi.com/viewvideo.jspx?Movie=48464141/48464141peevee378318.flv
March 21, 2011 at 2:46 am
Dr. Doom
From the photo and videos, we can make some guesses as to probable life expectancy of the truck drivers, assuming they stay in their seats.
Distance between truck and fuel rod pool housing (dry pool) = about 50 feet.
Thickness of concrete wall = 1-2 feet (guess).
Thickness of glass truck windshield = 1 inch (probably less).
Time of exposure (from video) = about 5-10 minutes.
Assume one visit per driver. We can look up the probable radioactive flux from the internet. Then, we can calculate the probable life expectancy of a victim, given:
Exposure = Flux (exposure area) (exposure time) – concrete shield – windshield
/ (Distance)^2
I suspect the concrete and windshield stopping powers can be neglected. The primary radiation will be gamma, then fast beta. Assume (worst case, to be conservative) a dry spent rod pool with hundreds of fuel rods. Their age will make some effect, the older ones will be slightly less hot.
Once we have the exposure, we can look up the probable lifetime, depending upon the relative amounts of the types of radiation exposure, above. Chernobyl has examples.
March 21, 2011 at 5:28 am
dave
so, from that video, it looks like they’re loading individual pump trucks with sea water and then spraying down the fuel rods, or what’s left of them, with that. seems almost silly to me. i take that back. it does seem silly to me.
i’d be willing to bet that they had some type of high volume water line running out; so they thought they were good to go. but then the earthquak put a kabash on that.
March 21, 2011 at 6:11 am
dave
the one thing i love about the internet: being able to watch the pieces of industrialism as they go spinning off into the void.
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/possible-new-oil-spill-100-10-miles-reported-gulf-mexico
March 21, 2011 at 6:18 am
Nudge
“the one thing i love about the internet: being able to watch the pieces of industrialism as they go spinning off into the void.”
For at least as long as the internet is still running anyway. After that, we can only hope the AM talk radio crazies take a break from their rapturitis to share the news with us.
March 21, 2011 at 6:34 am
dave
of course, in my mind, nevermind indian point, we should shut them all down, while we still have the wherewithall to do it. but what to do with the waste that’s already accumulated? i guess somebody’s fucked, just hope it’s not me.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/19/opinion/19herbert.html
March 21, 2011 at 6:39 am
dave
yeah, more likely the ham radio geeks, for a little while anyway.
March 21, 2011 at 6:53 am
dave
the skateboard: the only worthwhile industrial product that i can think of.
March 21, 2011 at 1:29 pm
theroachman
I wonder if my dad still has his hand crank ham? Could come in handy
March 21, 2011 at 5:14 pm
EEofDC
“The Coast Guard said in a news release that it received a report of a three-mile-long rainbow sheen off the Louisiana coast at around 9:30 a.m. local time on Saturday.”
Damn! Here I was thinking it would turn out to be a charlie sheen. My bad.
March 22, 2011 at 6:55 am
dave
yeah, i don’t know roachman, but i’d tend to stick with hollowed out logs and cow bones. but that’s just me.
March 22, 2011 at 6:56 am
dave
anyhoo, maybe it’s just me, but i can’t help but think how ironic, and kinda funny, it is that the nuclear power plants got no power.
http://www.jaif.or.jp/english/index.php
March 22, 2011 at 7:07 am
dave
scroll about half way down and you can get an idea about how much cooling water is normaly being pumped through fukushima.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/tags/fukushima/
March 22, 2011 at 9:40 am
theroachman
That was quite ironic about the no power thingy. But even more ironic, to me at least, was the drawling on and on about the Japanese being a very orderly people. You could not get Anderson Cooper to stop talking about it. And then the first day they brought trucks to fukushima were riot trucks? What? What do police need riot trucks in Japan for? And here I thought they where so disciplined.
March 23, 2011 at 7:39 am
EEofDC
Natalia Manzurova, one of the few survivors among those directly involved in the long cleanup of Chernobyl, was a 35-year-old engineer at a nuclear plant in Ozersk, Russia, in April 1986 when she and 13 other scientists were told to report to the wrecked, burning plant in the northern Ukraine.
It was just four days after the world’s biggest nuclear disaster spewed enormous amounts of radiation into the atmosphere and forced the evacuation of 100,000 people.
Manzurova and her colleagues were among the roughly 800,000 “cleaners” or “liquidators” in charge of the removal and burial of all the contamination in what’s still called the dead zone.
Natalia Manzurova, shown here in 1988 in the “dead zone” of the Pripyat, is one of the relatively few survivors among those directly involved in the cleanup of Chernobyl. She spent 4 1/2 years helping clean the abandoned town of Pripyat, which was less than two miles from the Chernobyl reactors. The plant workers lived there before they were abruptly evacuated.
Manzurova, now 59 and an advocate for radiation victims worldwide, has the “Chernobyl necklace” — a scar on her throat from the removal of her thyroid — and myriad health problems. But unlike the rest of her team members, who she said have all died from the results of radiation poisoning, and many other liquidators, she’s alive.
We spoke with Manzurova about the nuclear disaster in Japan with the help of a translator on the telephone Monday from Vermont. Manzurova, who still lives in Ozersk, was beginning a one-week informational tour of the U.S. organized by the Beyond Nuclear watchdog group.
What was your first reaction when you heard about Fukushima?
Manzurova: It felt like déjà vu. I felt so worried for the people of Japan and the children especially. I know the experience that awaits them.
But experts say Fukushima is not as bad as Chernobyl.
Every nuclear accident is different, and the impact cannot be truly measured for years. The government does not always tell the truth. Many will never return to their homes. Their lives will be divided into two parts: before and after Fukushima. They’ll worry about their health and their children’s health. The government will probably say there was not that much radiation and that it didn’t harm them. And the government will probably not compensate them for all that they’ve lost. What they lost can’t be calculated.
What message do you have for Japan?
Run away as quickly as possible. Don’t wait. Save yourself and don’t rely on the government because the government lies. They don’t want you to know the truth because the nuclear industry is so powerful.
Natalia Manzurova, now 59, has suffered a variety of ailments since she worked at Chernobyl, but she says she is the only member of her team still alive.When you were called to go to Chernobyl, did you know how bad it was there?
I had no idea and never knew the true scope until much later. It was all covered in secrecy. I went there as a professional because I was told to — but if I was asked to liquidate such an accident today, I’d never agree. The sacrifices the Fukushima workers are making are too high because the nuclear industry was developed in such a way that the executives don’t hold themselves accountable to the human beings who have to clean up a disaster. It’s like nuclear slavery.
What was your first impression of Chernobyl?
It was like a war zone where a neutron bomb had gone off. I always felt I was in the middle of a war where the enemy was invisible. All the houses and buildings were intact with all the furniture, but there wasn’t a single person left. Just deep silence everywhere. Sometimes I felt I was the only person alive on a strange planet. There are really no words to describe it.
What did your work as a liquidator entail?
First, we measured radiation levels and got vegetation samples to see how high the contamination was. Then bulldozers dug holes in the ground and we buried everything — houses, animals, everything. There were some wild animals that were still alive, and we had to kill them and put them in the holes.
Were any pets left in the houses?
The people had only a few hours to leave, and they weren’t allowed to take their dogs or cats with them. The radiation stays in animals’ fur and they can’t be cleaned, so they had to be abandoned. That’s why people were crying when they left. All the animals left behind in the houses were like dried-out mummies. But we found one dog that was still alive.
Where did you find the dog and how did he survive?
We moved into a former kindergarten to use as a laboratory and we found her lying in one of the children’s cots there. Her legs were all burned from the radiation and she was half blind. Her eyes were all clouded from the radiation. She was slowly dying.
Were you able to rescue her?
No. Right after we moved in, she disappeared. And this is the amazing part. A month later we found her in the children’s ward of the (abandoned) hospital. She was dead. She was lying in a child’s bed, the same size bed we found her in the kindergarten. Later we found out that she loved children very much and was always around them.
How did working in the dead zone begin to affect your health?
I started to feel as if I had the flu. I would get a high temperature and start to shiver. What happens during first contact with radiation is that your good flora is depleted and the bad flora starts to flourish. I suddenly wanted to sleep all the time and eat a lot. It was the organism getting all the energy out.
How much radiation were you subjected to?
We were never told. We wore dosimeters which measured radiation and we submitted them to the bosses, but they never gave us the results.
But didn’t you realize the danger and want to leave?
Yes, I knew the danger. All sorts of things happened. One colleague stepped into a rainwater pool and the soles of his feet burned off inside his boots. But I felt it was my duty to stay. I was like a firefighter. Imagine if your house was burning and the firemen came and then left because they thought it was too dangerous.
When did you discover the thyroid tumor?
They found it during a routine medical inspection after I had worked there several years. It turned out to be benign. I don’t know when it started to develop. I had an operation to remove half the thyroid gland. The tumor grew back, and last year I had the other half removed. I live on (thyroid) hormones now.
Why did you go back to Chernobyl after getting a thyroid tumor?
Right around the time of my operation, the government passed a law saying the liquidators had to work for exactly 4 1/2 years to get our pension and retire. If you left even one day early, you would not get any benefits.
Really? That seems beyond cruel.
It’s why the nuclear industry is dangerous. They want to deny the dangers. They kept changing the law about what benefits we’d get because if they admitted how much we were affected, it would look bad for the industry. Now we hardly get any benefits.
Did your health worsen after you finally finished work at Chernobyl?
I was basically disabled at 43. I was having fits similar to epileptic fits. My blood pressure was sky high. It was hard to work for more than six months a year. The doctors didn’t know what to do with me. They wanted to put me in a psychiatric ward and call me crazy. Finally they admitted it was because of the radiation.
March 23, 2011 at 7:43 am
dave
why the japs need riot police:
March 23, 2011 at 7:49 am
dave
ee,
what’s the source of that article?
March 23, 2011 at 10:54 am
theroachman
Fukushima and Chernobyl are very difficult to compare. Other then the radiation leek they are completely different. Russia fucked up by trying an experiment that the US and everyone else who knew about what they where doing knew was going to fail but they did it anyways. It was Russian roulette with a bullet in every chamber. Fukushima is more of an extended game of Russian roulette. Some day something is going to go wrong and it did.
March 23, 2011 at 4:44 pm
GB
Nuclear energy…the gift that keeps on giving. Here in the NE we have the Indian Point facility…where the operators, I believe, were quoted recently saying that it can presently withstand a quake of 7 on the richter scale. (So not to worry.)
March 23, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Dr. Doom
These two items in this morning’s news caught my attention:
1. Fuku number 3 was on fire with dark smoke coming out of the reactor building.
2. Plants workers were evacuated Wednesday due to increased radiation.
Fuku no. 3 is a MOX or mixed-fuel reactor with plutonium and uranium fuel. Pu is very radioactive, long lived, and a potent toxin. I think the two items are related and do not spell happy trails for the Japanese.
March 23, 2011 at 7:23 pm
theroachman
Certianly not good news for for the Japanese or West coast RW conspiracy nuts but it is good news for all RW Rapture nuts.
March 23, 2011 at 7:28 pm
theroachman
Got side track at what I was going to post from ashi.com
Rolling blackouts for at least a year now:
http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201103220186.html
March 24, 2011 at 7:26 am
GB
If you get raptured you miss out on coffee, trout fishing, home grown tomatoes with olive oil and basil, and probably wine …am I leaving anything out?
March 24, 2011 at 11:28 am
theroachman
Some really good satire
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2011/03/if_chernobyl_is_as_bad_as_it_g.php?utm_source=editorspicks
March 25, 2011 at 5:48 am
Nudge
“.. am I leaving anything out?”
Mmm, good music, dancing, being with someone you’re madly in love with? The smell of early-morning air when you’re road-tripping through the midwest? Bicycling home after work in the winter, with the big dipper hanging above and the smell of woodsmoke on the air?
Forget about this rapture BS, they’d have to drag me away.
March 25, 2011 at 4:49 pm
dave
yeah, there are millions of things that make you want to cling to life. the trick is in knowing how to let go, i think.
March 25, 2011 at 7:04 pm
Nudge
Love you too, Dave :)
March 25, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Dr. Doom
Nudge, you forgot great sex and tasty booze, not necessarily in that order.
They say that even lousy sex is better than no sex, but you can’t really say the same thing about liquor.
Personally, I enjoy a fine cigar now and then, as well.
March 26, 2011 at 5:29 am
dave
i love only my buick, and one of my three cats; i’m only fond of the other two.
March 26, 2011 at 10:26 am
Nudge
Sorry Doom, I was including that under being with someone you’re madly in love with.
But as long as we’re talking about enjoyable vices .. I climb hills, speedwalk, ride commuter and road bikes and am tall, thin, and toned .. so one of my vices has got to be showing off a little now and then. Err, feeding the dogs, some might say.
March 26, 2011 at 3:59 pm
dave
They say that even lousy sex is better than no sex…
does jerking off to internet porn count? cause i like that best of all.
March 26, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Nudge
Dave, have you ever asked your computer how it feels afterwards, or whether it was good for it too? Just saying. Reciprocity is good, right?
March 26, 2011 at 8:13 pm
Dr. Doom
Ha, you can’t trust those computers, they’l emit fake ooohs and ahhhs. They’re just into it for the extended warranty.
March 27, 2011 at 8:20 am
dave
i fullfill all my computer’s needs.
March 27, 2011 at 8:49 am
Nudge
Doom, when you say it that way, it sounds almost as if you’re talking about something else. OK, so the reason the computer might be after the extended warranty is not necessarily because that’s where the real scrilla is (as opposed to the one-shot stuff that can be earned up-front) (if that’s what you were implying) but because the hardware usually ages quickly (computer years are like dog years or faster) and because some form of commitment is what makes possible a stable computing career.
Granted, there are computer users of the type who are always after the newest shiniest thing and who cannot commit for fear of “missing out” on something they’ve never yet experienced, but thankfully they’re in the minority or else the world would be even more egregiously full of discarded computer systems.
March 27, 2011 at 9:02 am
Nudge
Doom, there’s an especially low form of computer user that does little but go to the sort of computer show where computers are on display in some sort of visual serial thing (not an RS232 reference!) oriented to the commitmentphobe viewers.
I know about that especial lowness only because I’m friends with a local guy who used to manage that kind of computer show and who was involved in many aspects of it. He paid me a really odd compliment a couple months ago (or it was an insult, I can’t tell which) which put me on a reading spree on the subject.
Shit, now it sounds like I’m talking about something else too!
March 27, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Dr. Doom
it was just a joke Nudge, try not to read too much into it.
i know all about computer creeps, as i am raising two of them. one is a facebook social junkie, the other is a violent destruction killer gamer who just bought an x-box 360 with his own money.
March 27, 2011 at 3:54 pm
Nudge
Gah, we really were talking about different stuff!
Sorry to hear about the violent gamer. Maybe he should have gotten a Wii instead? (ducks)
March 27, 2011 at 5:19 pm
Dr. Doom
the older one has a Wii, where they kill ducks with virtual shotguns and play golf, violently hitting a small virtual golf ball as hard as they can for distance. we’re raising two violent carnivores with enlarged thumbs—watch out world!
quiz: what do playing golf and joining the Nazi Party have in common?
answer: they’re both elitist activities.
March 27, 2011 at 5:49 pm
Nudge
Quiz them on what they would do if they were in charge of the nation. If the answers include any of the following, there may be cause for alarm:
- ban abortion on demand
- redecorate the congress in purple and gold
- annex Mexico or Canada
March 28, 2011 at 6:56 am
dave
any lifeform that chooses opposable thumbs is nothing but trouble in my book.
March 28, 2011 at 7:16 am
GB
Some of the 19 to 20 year old females are nice to look at though.
March 28, 2011 at 8:53 am
dave
Some of the 19 to 20 year old females are nice to look at though.
this is true; but they’re still nothing but trouble.
March 28, 2011 at 5:00 pm
Nudge
Dave, you’re painting with a pretty broad brush there. But to be fair, I was trouble then and still am anyway, so there ya go.
March 28, 2011 at 9:58 pm
theroachman
The MSN is starting to see reality
http://www.comcast.net/slideshow/finance-losingwater/atlanta%20/
Now if I can just convice the locals here that farms are more important then their stupid lawns we could make some real progress.
March 28, 2011 at 10:16 pm
uncle remus
“Pretty broad[s]” – yep, that’s what Dave’s talking about.
March 29, 2011 at 5:38 am
GB
“this is true; but they’re still nothing but trouble.”
Yes, I suppose even male lampreys and male bedbugs think that the female of their species is hot looking.
March 29, 2011 at 6:31 am
dave
Dave, you’re painting with a pretty broad brush there.
well, i don’t think think so. everybody is annoying and stupid in one way or another. think about it.
March 29, 2011 at 6:34 am
dave
….we could make some real progress.
progress? that’s just silly.
March 29, 2011 at 6:43 am
dave
Yes, I suppose even male lampreys and male bedbugs think that the female of their species is hot looking.
yeah, since getting past the need to procreate, i find that i can take or leave women for what they are. i still enjoy thier company at times, in much the same way that i might enjoy a dram of single malt. but if it is disagreeable in any way, i dump it out without a second thought. they, women and scotch, have no power of infatution over me at this point.
women are always good to have around to tend gardens and carry firewood and such. in that sense everybody should have one or 2 hanging around.
March 29, 2011 at 7:00 am
dave
haha, trying to solve a water shortage through a law suite. and you think that such creatures are capable of “progress” in some meaningful form? that’s silly. no, what we are at heart is a thermodynamic dispative structure. what those do is produce as much entropy as they can, fast as they can. that’s all they do.
http://www.comcast.net/slideshow/finance-losingwater/fort-worth-texas%20/
March 29, 2011 at 7:33 am
dave
looking worse for the japs. but hey, never ask, for who the bell tolls? i always say.
http://candobetter.net/node/2411
March 29, 2011 at 11:10 am
theroachman
I notice the wind up radio I wonder if he has a Ham version too?
March 29, 2011 at 11:40 am
uncle remus
“In case you think the world, especially the middle east at this time, is in the grip of some random series of events, with people spontaneously rising up against their tyrannical overlords, I suggest you look at the map below (my annotation) and think again.”
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/axis-of-evil-doing/
March 29, 2011 at 11:41 am
uncle remus
“Whether Americans want to admit it or not, it’s the single greatest fear in their lives: fear of the government.”
http://dailyreckoning.com/american-fear/
March 29, 2011 at 11:50 am
uncle remus
Hey Gomez, ya see what happened to those sorry tankers in Libya? That’s right, char fucking broiled and no ‘hogs doin’ swoop n’ poop. Mark my words ese, at the rate shit’s goin’, there’s a no-fly zone in our future.
I suggest we all practice egress.
March 29, 2011 at 12:02 pm
uncle remus
“wind up radio”
Standard issue in tornado country. Interesting thought on a hand crank ham radio and I assume you mean one that transmits. There is a dearth of those online based on my quick search – lots of receivers though. Of course, the power needed to transmit is higher than just to receive, especially if you want/need to reach out deep into the ether.
March 29, 2011 at 12:08 pm
uncle remus
“looking worse for the japs. but hey, never ask, for who the bell tolls? i always say.”
Fucked all over, a little irony on the side. (Apologies to FZ)
March 29, 2011 at 1:17 pm
theroachman
Read the Daily Reckoning about American fear. The funny part is people keep voting for the same people they fear.
March 29, 2011 at 1:56 pm
uncle remus
r-man: I know. I read someplace where they likened it to Stockholm Syndrome or some such.
What plagues the middle east plagues us – literally.
I don’t think that is the plague dave would have us pray for, however.
March 30, 2011 at 7:08 am
dave
yeah, commoners, serfs, slaves, peasents, consumers, whatever you want to call them, have always lived in fear.
March 30, 2011 at 7:09 am
dave
it’s part of the system.
March 30, 2011 at 10:45 am
Dr. Doom
a wind-up radio is an energy humbling experience. we have one. it takes a lot of serious winding to run for about 20-30 minutes. their fate is to have the crank break. then what? back to batteries, for awhile.
March 30, 2011 at 2:48 pm
theroachman
A year and have later and I read Clusterfuck dont ask my why.
March 30, 2011 at 3:57 pm
GB
How long before tribal is the way to go, I wonder…
March 30, 2011 at 7:26 pm
theroachman
Tribal Cyberpunk is more my taste
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ZNidzWLIQ&w=480&h=390
March 30, 2011 at 7:27 pm
theroachman
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3ZNidzWLIQ&w=480&h=390
March 30, 2011 at 7:28 pm
theroachman
technology is overrated
March 31, 2011 at 5:11 am
dave
technology is overrated
not by me.
March 31, 2011 at 5:14 am
dave
How long before tribal is the way to go, I wonder…
you’ll know it when it happens, but not before that. i guess.
March 31, 2011 at 11:04 am
Dr. Doom
technology is like your knees, you should appreciate and care for them, because you’re gonna miss them when they’re gone.
March 31, 2011 at 12:27 pm
uncle remus
“technology is like your knees, you should appreciate and care for them, because you’re gonna miss them when they’re gone.”
I hear that.
Say doomy, did you ever get your WP password issues figgered out?
March 31, 2011 at 3:13 pm
dave
yeah, i guess. my knees really do suck. in fact, my father was crippled by osteoartheritis in the knees; and i’m probably heading in that direction, no matter what i might do. but i can still knap flint, the only sustainable technology. well, that and twig technology, i guess.
http://www.onagocag.com/knapping.html
March 31, 2011 at 8:21 pm
EEofDC
“women are always good to have around to tend gardens and carry firewood and such. in that sense everybody should have one or 2 hanging around.”
I feel the same way about men, although I’d rather they be gay guys–they’re so much more interesting and aren’t constantly sniffing around looking pathetic and trying to get laid.
March 31, 2011 at 8:38 pm
Dr. Doom
“Say doomy, did you ever get your WP password issues figgered out?”
We have an uneasy truce. I need moron time than I wish to devote to fixing it (my blog site). I need to learn WordPress. At least it’s not TypoPad. Perhaps in a few moron weeks. I’m much worse than JR about that blog site.
March 31, 2011 at 10:49 pm
uncle remus
“I feel the same way about men, although I’d rather they be gay guys–they’re so much more interesting and aren’t constantly sniffing around looking pathetic and trying to get laid.”
Long ago and far away I worked for a contractor – a husband and wife team. She was real alpha. Had a devil of time keeping a secretary. I suggested to her one day to hire a gay man. Worked out far longer than any previous females did.
April 1, 2011 at 4:54 am
dave
I feel the same way about men, although I’d rather they be gay guys–they’re so much more interesting and aren’t constantly sniffing around looking pathetic and trying to get laid.
yes, many guys are pathetic in thier need to please women. like that contractor in the above example. he shoulda told his wife, “hey, thy’re my secretaries, and i’ll fuck them if i want to.”
April 1, 2011 at 5:31 am
dave
i guess. but some(many? maybe most?) men require the admiration of a woman. if they would just give up those infantile urges to please mommy, or to stick thier dick in some hole or another, the world would be a much better place, i think. but probably not. anyway, it all starts with the dirty sqaw who happens to shit you out, so i’ll just keep it simple and blame her for the whole mess, i guess.
April 1, 2011 at 5:46 am
dave
not that she, the aformentioned dirty squaw, has any more choice in the matter thatn anybody else, of course. i guess.
April 1, 2011 at 5:47 am
dave
i just don’t know. it’s got to be the opposable thumbs.