Experience
March 28, 2011

Experience is a great teacher
who gives way too much homework

Life lessons not learned the first time around
drop by again

War is a hell we keep promising to
drop by again

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Music Association: Sonny & Cher - I Got You Babe





Make Yourself Cozy
March 27, 2011


Have a seat.
I'll be with you in a minute.

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Music Associations: The Beatles - Wait; Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb




For Everyone Facing
Radiation * Floods * Earthquakes * War * Violent Protests
and the last day of a long work-week...
March 25, 2011

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Music Association: Bob Seger - Travelin' Man
Bob Seger plays the Xcel on May 12th.




Snow Tape Measure
March 24, 2011

It's been a snowy winter.

But we need more snow if we're going for the record.

It's just 14 more inches. We can do that easily.

Then we can ship the snow to Tokyo to give them cold clean drinking water.

Everybody wins.

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Music Association: The Association - Never My Love
The Association plays the State Fair on August 29th.





Tokyo Tap Water Unsafe for Infants
March 23, 2011

Tap water in Tokyo has twice the radiation allowable for infants, causing shortages of bottled water in Japan's largest city. The United States has barred imports from the Japanese prefectures of Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki, and Tochigi due to radionuclide contamination. Hong Kong has followed suit.

+ The American Red Cross and Japanese Red Cross Society continue to accept donations. +

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Music Association: Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water
+ The unposted post with the Deep Purple connection.




That Beautiful Glow
March 22, 2011

Radiant skin glows as if every emotion ever felt were shining through at once.

Is it love?

Is it makeup?

No, it's the Mark 1 reactor by GE. Before the Mark 1, nuclear reactors were expensive to build. After General Electric started selling the Mark 1 in the 1960s, reactors became a bit cheaper, by using smaller containment units.

The Mark 1 is the type of reactor used at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan and at 23 of the 104 reactor units in the United States, including the one at the Monticello plant in Minnesota.

Xcel Energy, the operator of the 572 megawatt Monticello power plant, says that the Monticello Mark 1 is not identical to the Mark 1 reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant. In Monticello, hydrogen is vented outside, which is thought to prevent the kind of explosive hydrogen build-up that occurred twice at the Japanese power plant.

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Music Association: The Firm - Radioactive




Better Lyrics Through Cheap Radio
March 21, 2011

Now that Spring is in the air and a bounce is in my step, it's time to toss around the cheap radio (something not done with the iPod).

While the radio is in mid-air, the songs sound different. Maybe it's a doppler effect as the radio spins away, I dunno.

What was that song with the line, "It's not a chariot race," that was just on?

Google says...

Nothing comes up -- which is surprising because so many things could be compared to a chariot race and just not measure up.

Tossing around an iPod is no chariot race, let me tell you.

Out in the sticks, throwing around the cheap radio, I must have misheard the lyrics. Hearing lyrics from a thrown radio is no chariot race, I'm telling you. The actual lyrics are "I'm not a charity case." Compare "It's not a chariot race" to "I'm not a charity case." Chariot race is ten times better.

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Music Association: Styx - Blue Collar Man



Nuclear Accident Severity Index
March 18, 2011

Japan raised its nuclear accident severity level from 4 to 5 on the international scale that ranks accidents on a scale from 0 to 7. There's a nuclear accident severity index?!?

Getting out the N volume of Wikipedia, it tells me to go back to the bookshelf for the I volume. Turning Wikipedia pages, I find the term International Nuclear Event Scale. Oh.

Hey, it's color coded! That's great. That way the INES information can be conveyed with a series of colored lights.

Technician 1: Shouldn't the INES light be orange right now?
Technician 2: What light?
Technician 1: The light above the door. The INES light. It had been yellow-with-a-hint-of-orange. Now it's out.
Technician 2: Do you mean to tell me that after everything -- the roofs of 1 and 3 being blown off, the nuclear waste fire in 4, the disappearing water in number 3, not to mention a death toll rising above 6,500  -- we also have a burned out orange light bulb?!?
Technician 1: Yes, I think that's what made us go from 4 to 5 on the scale.

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Music Association: Chicago - 25 or 6 to 4






Happy St. Patrick's Day
March 17, 2011


A Limerick
There once was a man from Esser
Whose knowledge grew lesser and lesser
It at last grew so small
He knew nothing at all
And now he's a college professor

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Music Association: Flogging Molly - Worst Day Since Yesterday




Japanese Disaster Assistance
The Ides of March 2011

In the novel Hopes and Dreams: Stuck on AutoDrive, a group of people played a board game called Feed The Hungry.  Despite their mix of attitudes and motivations, everyone learned how tough it is to provide disaster assistance.

For Americans trying to help Sendai and its neighboring communities, a key issue is that not all relief organizations will be useful to Japan. Japan has plenty of competent people, including their Self-Defense Forces, which  have 66,000 people working to rescue people in conjunction with the USS Ronald Reagan carrier group.

Japan has its own Red Cross; the American Red Cross won't be going, but the Japanese Red Cross is accepting donations through the American Red Cross. Teams from Doctors Without Borders and the International Medical Corps are in Japan now.

Far too often, relief organizations use disasters as a fund raising tool, even though they can't always provide assurances that they can provide any assistance.

To date:     1,647 have died (643 in Miyagi Prefecture, 531 in Iwate Prefecture)
                    1,720 missing
                    9,600 stranded
                    1.4 million people in 14 prefectures without water

Needs:        nuclear reactor control 
                    water for 1.4 million
                    food & shelter
                    search & rescue

Search & Rescue
The combination of a carrier task force, the Japanese defense force, and trained teams of dogs and people seems to be about the best mix for the search and rescue efforts.

Water Solutions
Water tanks are a short term water solution. Japanese engineers can provide the long term solutions.

Food & Shelter
Two helicopters with relief foods and materials (emergency tents, fruits, telecommunication equipment, & kerosene) arrived in Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture from Peace Winds Japan (donate through Mercy Corps). A truck team with additional relief foods and materials (balloon shelters, fruits, & breads), left Niigata today for Kesennuma.
 
The city of Sendai has opened 247 emergency shelters, housing and feeding more than 70,000 people. One shelter serves 1,500 meals each breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Nuclear Reactions
Boiling water nuclear power experts from Japan and the United States are working on the reactor problem. Teams from the European Union are standing by to help.

[Note: as of April 26, 2011 - 14,435 people dead and 11,601 missing.]

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Music Association: The Beatles - Help







Pi Day
3.14...

Nature has taken a wedge... a slice out of the whole of Japan.

To see the initial damage by the earthquake with everything being tossed about.
Then the collateral damage by fires.
Then the sweeping and rearranging damage of the tsunami.
Thousands of lives.
The nuclear power plant blowing off radioactive steam and blowing its roof off. 
Scheduled blackouts of 3 hours per day will curb energy consumption due to the loss of the two power plants.
Toyota production may lose 40,000 vehicles.
Plus the financial market loss of 6% or more and the insurance damages currently estimated at $35 billion.
Overall the economic impact is being tallied at over $100 billion.

That's a lot of numbers.

But help is on its way. USAID Urban Search and Rescue teams (150 people, 12 dogs) arrived today in Japan. USAID Direct Response Teams preceded them. Search and rescue teams from China arrived in Oofunato, Iwate on Sunday night. Nuclear reactor experts from the U.S. have been sent to the power plants.

Ways to help:
Mercy Corps for Peace Winds Japan -- providing tents for the homeless
Operation USA -- accepting donations, corporate donations of bulk medical supplies, and airline miles
Doctors Without Borders -- first responders are in Japan; not accepting earmarked donations
International Medical Corp -- first responders are in Japan; accepting donations
The Salvation Army --accepting donations and sending a response team
The Japanese Red Cross is accepting donations through the American Red Cross; American Air AAdvantage assistance
Plus:
ATT is offering free calls and text messages to Japan from March 11 to March 31
Vonage will provide free calls to Japan from March 11 to March 18
Verizon Wireless will waive text-message fees for disaster relief
(other InterAction organizations)

Donation numbers:
Mercy Corps: text MERCY to 25383
American Red Cross Relief: text REDCROSS to 90999
International Medical Corps: text MED to 80888
Salvation Army: text JAPAN to 80888


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Music Association: Warrant - Cherry Pie







Hawaiian Homeless Kicked Off Beach Yesterday;
Tsunami Hits Today
March 11, 2011

Oahu's Leeward Coast is the southwestern side of the island and is home to Keaau Beach Park's 200 homeless people.

Yesterday, after weeks of warnings, they were kicked out, for beautification purposes.

Today, the 8.9 magnitude earthquake occurred off the northeast coast of Japan, the strongest on record, sending tsunami to Japan, killing thousands, and splashing across the Pacific Ocean.

Tsunami have now hit Oahu [9am cst].

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Music Association: Beach Boys - Catch A Wave