Month: March 2011

We can all sympathize with the Japanese people in this, their darkest hour since Nagasaki and Hiroshima. No amount of technological expertise could prevent the devastation and enormous loss of life that occurred over the last few days, following the huge earthquake and accompanying tsunami, sweeping all before it like matchwood in a mill race.

Added to these horrors is another; the conceivable meltdown of three nuclear reactors with potentially catastrophic results, not just for the people of Japan, but possibly for the whole planet.

Scaremongering? I think not.

If you are less than twenty-five years of age, you weren’t even born when the world’s worst nuclear accident occurred. In 1986, the number four reactor at a nuclear power station in what is now Ukraine blew up, sending clouds of radioactive dust into the atmosphere. That was Chernobyl. You might have heard of it.

While the media made much of the event (when it eventually became known in the West) official sources, both here and in Russia, played down the effects of the accident. It’s now thought over one million people were effected as a result of the Chernobyl explosion by four hundred times the amount of radiation as was released from the bomb exploded over Hiroshima.

A report into the nuclear accident at Chernobyl concluded serious human error was the cause. The potential nuclear problems in Japan have resulted from a freak natural event. Neither of these can ever be ruled out when dealing with a power source so dangerous it has the ability to kill or maim us all.

Nuclear industry lobbyists are already hard at work playing down the likely scenarios unfolding at Fukushima. They would, it’s their job. Only today, US President Obama has poo-pooed any freeze on new nuclear power development programs in the United States.

Why?

The Japanese are world leaders in nuclear technology. Just a few days ago, interviewed on American TV, a leading US nuclear expert clearly stated that if a similar incident were to occur in the US, they would immediately turn to the Japanese for technological assistance.

Yet the Japanese are in trouble. Their reactors are presently out of control and on the verge of meltdown.

Nuclear energy is not renewable energy. Uranium, mined mainly in Australia, is a rare element. It’s incapable of being safely stored after use. We don’t need it. The only people on this planet who need nuclear energy are the corporations that grow rich off it. All our energy requirements can be met through a mix of solar-thermal power plants, wind farms, hydroelectric power, and the various uses of biomass. Germany is set to become the world’s first major renewable energy economy by 2050, though the nuclear industry is doing everything possible to prevent it.^[1]

Meanwhile, America stagnates as corporate-controlled politicians kill off any environmental legislation that might cause corporate pockets to be picked, and bolster the nuclear industry to the tune of $54 billion tax dollars this year alone.^[2]

In the UK, it’s not generally known how badly the Chernobyl incident effected the British Isles, even though it was 1,400 miles away. Politicians played down the radiation hazard that fell upon the nation, and much was brushed under the political carpet.

It was twenty-five years ago, but a May 2010 article from ‘Wales Online’ clearly indicates problems still exist, particularly for Welsh sheep farmers:

Latest figures show 369 UK farms continue to be restricted in the way they can use land and rear sheep because of fallout from the world’s worst nuclear power accident. But the vast majority of the restricted farms – 355 – are in Snowdonia, involving 180,000 of the 190,000 affected sheep.

When the disaster happened in April 1986, some 9,700 farms and more than four million sheep were under restriction across the UK after downpours rained radioactive material onto land across northern Europe. Bans in Northern Ireland were lifted in 2000.

For the hundreds of Welsh farmers still living with Chernobyl’s legacy, the restrictions mean their animals are only allowed to enter the food chain after rigorous safety tests. It is understood the restrictions could continue for many years to come.^[3]

Lobbyists will argue that nuclear power stations are much safer now than twenty-five years ago. They may be right, but none are built to withstand the forces unleashed on Japan this week.

In the span of a human lifetime, natural disasters occur rarely, but looked at through geological time-spans they happen with unnerving frequency. Add to that the inherent ability of human beings to make mistakes, and every nuclear power station on the planet becomes a potential catastrophe in the making.

In the space of thirty years we’ve experienced Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and now, Fukushima. At least, those are the ones we’ve heard about.

It’s time we said a loud and insistent, “NO!” to nuclear power, once and for all.

^{[1] “Germany: The World’s First Major Renewable Energy Economy” Renewable Energy World, April 3rd 2009}

^{[2] “Obama’s nuclear power policy: a study in contradictions?” CSM, February 4th 2010}

^{[3] “Farms still suffering Chernobyl restrictions” Wales Online, May 10th 2010}

Filed under: Nuclear insanity

Many Americans will remember the Corningware brand of kitchen cookware, a top quality range of products that withstood quite intense heat without cracking. It was first produced in 1958.

Not being American, I wasn’t familiar with the product until about two years ago. It was just prior to Christmas. My wife being rather partial to a very chocolatey festive pudding that requires pressure cooking, I went in search of ramekins.

I found them in a local supermarket, Kroger, and purchased the last six on the shelf.

They appeared to perform admirably, and as we like a small piece of dark chocolate after our meal each evening, they became the repository of said cocoa product on our daily dinner trays.

This meant they were washed frequently in the dishwasher. After some months had passed I noticed the glaze on the bottom of the ramekins had worn away exposing a dark under-layer, with the exception of one ramekin which remained as white and smooth as the day it was bought.

It was something of a mystery. Each ramekin was used, and washed, as frequently as the others, yet one was untouched by the dishwasher while the others were decidedly tarnished. I determined to get to the bottom of this enigma.

“Getting to the bottom,” proved to be more than an over-used idiom, as turning all the pots upside down rapidly revealed the cause.

The five offending ramekins are all stamped, “Corningware”. The embossed writing on the sixth pot is more difficult to make out, but by clicking on the image to enlarge it, then clicking on it again to full size, its just possible to make out the name, “Corningware” on this one also.

Apart from the obvious difference, that five of them had the name stamped on the bottom prior to firing, while the embossed letters of the sixth were likely done in a mold, there is another factor that may not be so obvious from the images.

The five stamped, inferior, ramekins are clearly marked, “Made in China,” but even at the webpage resolution of the image below, on a large computer screen it’s not difficult to make out, across the center of the sixth pot, the words, “Made in USA”. (if you’re reading this on a laptop, click on the image to enlarge it).

Wikipedia informs us that Corningware was bought out by World Kitchens Incorporated, of Reston, Virginia. Following that takeover, two factories – in Pennsylvania and Illinois – were closed. The reason given by World Kitchens, Inc was:

…….as part of a program designed to reduce costs through the elimination of under-utilized capacity, unprofitable product lines, and increased utilization of the remaining facilities.”

Or, to put it more succinctly, the Chinese will make us a totally inferior, though similar looking product, for a fraction of the price, and American customers will never know the difference.

Well, until we come to wash them a few times.

Of course, we all know it’s not just the quality of ramekins that has suffered from the greedy profit-taking of the corporates. Almost everything bought in America these days is labelled, “Made in China”, and it’s all rubbish.

Once again, we are confronted with irrefutable proof that the powerful, wealthy, corporates are selling America down the Yangtze River to line their own pockets.

These are the people our politicians, particularly Republicans, have sold out to. They stand with hands on hearts and declare their patriotism, while engaging in anti-American activities.

They may feign loyalty to their America, but they are nothing less than traitors to the America people.

America is in hock to China for billions of dollars, while China unloads its cheap tat on the US public. Meanwhile, US Corningware workers continue to draw their unemployment benefit.

The enigma of the ramekins may have ramifications for us all.

Filed under: Hardly a Ming

The protests in Wisconsin and other US states will continue to escalate, so long as the desires of the wealthy take precedence over the needs of the poor.

Since man came down from the trees, he has been in competition with his fellows for survival and comfort. That is as it should be; nature’s laws are quite specific. Survival of the fittest is how evolution works.

The system man has devised, however, is more in defiance of, rather than in sympathy with, nature’s laws. In modern-day Homo sapien societies, any suggestion that survival of the fittest is a suitable rule to apply, would be rightly frowned upon, yet American society has probably come closer to applying that rule than any other nation in the ‘civilized’ world.

Throughout this land, any mention of assisting the under-privileged through taxation, or similar collective forms of wealth distribution, is met with howls of disgust reminiscent of a wolf pack baying for blood at the full moon of a desolate winter’s night.

American capitalism is survival of the fittest refined to a degree that nature never intended.

If we consider most other forms of animal life on this planet, we find those who form groups or communities to be far more considerate of their fellows than are Homo sapiens. Among the primates is a degree of equality lacking in their human cousins. While males may vie for position as leader of the group, and squabble over the attentions of females, there is no species that allows one sector to become so powerful it separates from the rest and dominates entirely for its own benefit, to the detriment of the rest of the group.

The human being is probably the only mammal on the planet to take the natural survival instinct and turn it into a weapon with which to attack his fellow beings. That weapon has a name; it’s called, greed.

No-one would deny that nature created ‘pecking-orders’. Every wolf pack has its alpha male. But whereas the leader of a wolf pack will care and nurture the group by finding prey and ensuring full bellies, our species’ evolutionary ability to think coherently has only managed to separate its leaders from the ‘pack’. They use their power to further their own interests and comforts, to the detriment of the rest.

Nowhere is this more obvious today than in America. Wisconsin’s governor, Scott Walker, is pretending to be a leader, an alpha male, when in reality he is merely a lowly pawn doing the bidding of those above him. One only has to hear him talk to realize there is more of the weasel about him, than the wolf.

So, are those who truly hold the reigns of power in the world our alpha males? In most cases, no. The leader of the wolf pack gains his status through physical strength and endurance. Those who rule in Homo sapien world are generally weak and enfeebled individuals, empowered by unearned, or ill-gotten, wealth. They need to pay heavily for protection from their fellows, rather than reign supreme by virtue of respect.

Where would Muammar Gaddafi be today without his mercenaries?

Most other forms of animal life long ago settled on the best way to run their societies for the well-being of all. The wolf pack, for example, has existed in similar form for thousands of years. Homo sapiens still cannot agree on how its societies should function. Wars are waged to force one form of societal structure onto another, different, form. The long-running battle of capitalism over communism is a perfect example.

Distribution of wealth is the stumbling block for human society. It should be easy to construct a set of rules ensuring every one individual has sufficient, yet no one gets too much and any surplus is used for the benefit of all. The great human failing is its inability to achieve that. Our societal systems are doomed to failure simply because those charged with defining the rules begin by twisting them to their own, individual, benefit.

Man has converted the law of nature into a selfish, self-centered, ideology. Nature’s ‘survival of the fittest’ rule bears no relation to the, ‘Stuff you, I’m alright, Jack’, philosophy that abounds in America today among those considered the ‘better off’.

It is for this reason alone that no societal structure, whatever its form, can work. The failure of communism, and now capitalism, to create a fair and just society, is the fault – not of the systems, as those holding the reigns of power would have us believe – but of those charged with running and regulating the systems.

Until they, in their turn, are regulated by the rest of us, any societal system is doomed to failure. It may supply plenty in the short term, but the intrinsic greed of its ruling group will eventually force it into failure.

In Wisconsin, the wolf pack has rightly turned on its leader, and is baying for his blood. While Scott Walker pretends to be an alpha male wolf, his weasel mentality will inevitably precipitate failure, providing, of course, the pack keeps up the pressure.

Homo sapiens continue to defy the laws of nature at their peril. Unless we stop twisting the rules to satiate our own individual lusts, at the expense of our fellows, this planet may find the dominant species is once more the wolf pack baying at the full moon of a desolate winter’s night, and Homo sapiens the victims of their own, self-imposed, extinction.

Filed under: One way ticket