Sorry about that, men. Now change your shorts and get back in there...
TOKYO Emergency workers struggling to pump contaminated water from Japan's stricken nuclear complex fled from one of the troubled reactors Sunday after reporting a huge increase in radioactivity a spike that officials later apologetically said was inaccurate.
The apology came after employees fled the complex's Unit 2 reactor when a reading showed radiation levels had reached 10 million times higher than normal in the reactor's cooling system. Officials said they were so high that the worker taking the measurements had withdrawn before taking a second reading.
On Sunday night, though, plant operators said that while the water was contaminated with radiation, the extremely high reading was a mistake."The number is not credible," said Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Takashi Kurita. "We are very sorry." He said officials were taking another sample to get accurate levels, but did not know when the results would be announced. I gotta say, I'm not too impressed with the information end of this thing...
#4
This is the hundreth or so report where the people who were using this to spread panic and discontent are strangely absent in spreading the correction.
#2
No, this is NOTHING like Chernobyl. In fact, while some workers were exposed to more than the 100mSv dose used as the normal limit, none have been exposed to more than the 250mSv dose limit set for this event. And both levels are well below the 500mSv limit for workers in the US and elsewhere in the world.
"10 million times normal" is pretty much scare headlines. That is water that has apparently leaked from the cooling loop of one of the reactors into the basement of the turbine building. MOST of that radiation was from Chlorine-38 which has a half-life in minutes and is an "activation product" of bombarding salt in sea water with neutrons.
That radiation will be gone in a couple of days and once they switch to fresh water for cooling, no more of it will be generated.
#3
The 10-million-times normal reading applies to radioactive iodine-134 found in the No. 2 building's pooled water, according to the nuclear safety agency. This isotope loses half its radioactive atoms every 53 minutes, compared to a half-life of every eight days for radioactive iodine-131 that has also been detected in recent days.
I-134 decays to one ten millionth (i.e. background levels) in 23.3 half lives or 20.6 hours. Chernobyl indeed.
#5
And the salt in the water is gradually being turned into argon by neutron activation. Both the sodium and the chlorine will eventually become argon but there is a brief period where sodium hydroxide is produced. About 25% of the chloride ions in salt are Cl-37 which pick up a neutron to become Cl-38. This decays in less than an hour to argon. Sodium doesn't bond to argon so the sodium ion is freed. The free sodium reacts with water to create NaOH also known as lye. But eventually the sodium converts to magnesium (becomes milk of magnesia) and then eventually potassium and sulfur and finally argon. Most light activation products eventually work their way up to argon gas at which point they are vented.
Also note that had the workers been wearing chest waders, they would have suffered no consequence at all. As it was, they got a little beta "sunburn" and that is about the equivalent severity of their injury, about like a sunburn.
#7
The high concentration of Cl-38 is due to neutron activation of Cl-37 in the sea water salt. (about 25% of the salt in sea water is Cl-37).
Once they switch to fresh water cooling the Cl-38 starts to go away. It also looks like they are getting the spent fuel cooling pond circulation and filtration systems working:
#9
While the media obsesses over this nuclear non-disaster, it ignores the toll of dead and missing passing 27,500.
The worst natural disaster in a developed nation by a very long way.
The death toll would have been a lot lower had vulnerable towns been relocated to higher ground.
As is usually the case with 'natural disasters', the real fault lies with governments who won't pass the necessary legislation to protect the population until after a disaster occurs.
We saw the same thing here in Oz recently. Dozens died in floods and it was only afterwards that the government decided letting people build their homes on floodplains was a bad idea and had to stop.
#12
'MOST of that radiation was from Chlorine-38 which has a half-life in minutes and is an "activation product" of bombarding salt in sea water with neutrons.'
'The 10-million-times normal reading applies to radioactive iodine-134 found in the No. 2 building's pooled water, according to the nuclear safety agency. This isotope loses half its radioactive atoms every 53 minutes,'
If there's a significant amount of short-lived neutron activation products then where do the neutrons come from?
Would spontaneous fission produce enough neutrons to explain this? Is there still a low level fission chain reaction? Or is there another mechanism that would create neutrons?
Posted by: Spealet Dark Lord of the Veal Cutlets6086 ||
03/27/2011 8:42 Comments ||
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#13
As long as godzilla doesnt eat my chewits , we'll all be fine ! here
Posted by: Craper and Company ||
03/27/2011 8:59 Comments ||
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#14
if it keeps anon1 unplugged and huddled in the dark in her panic room, it's got Chernobyl written all over it
/ssshhhh
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2011 9:05 Comments ||
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#15
Yeah, about that alleged radiation spike ... not so much.
#17
"If there's a significant amount of short-lived neutron activation products then where do the neutrons come from?"
Good question. They come from the nuclear fuel. The cooling water is circulating in direct contact with the fuel rods. These rods emit neutrons. The control rods are absorbing those neutrons so they don't start a chain reaction but the cooling water is exposed to them.
That said, they are now backing off that entire radiology report. The latest numbers from NISA make no mention of any Cl-38 or I-134.
It is very early in the morning in Japan, we probably won't get any new information for a few more hours yet.
#18
TOPIX > KAN TOLD TO DECENTRALIZE TOKYO [Earthquake] ANNIHILATION DANGER.
Pert advises NATO KAN that any major or catastrophic natural destruction of TOKYO could effec destabilize + destroy the entire Country of Japan, as since TOKYO PER SE = TOKYO ECON ACTIVITIES made up 1/3 of Japan's economy in 2007, is larger than INDIA'S GDP, + over 3X LARGER THAN SWEDEN'S ECONOMY???
and
* SAME > {Globe-and-Mail.UK] FEAR GROWS NEAR ANOTHER NUCLEAR PLANT IN JAPAN. Japan Nucplant at KASHIWAZAKI-KARIWA is the world's largest in in terms of output, + is located on a MAJOR = DANGEROUS FAULT LINE.
DANGER CLOSE.
However, despite quake risks JAPAN WILL STILL NEED NUCPOWER PLANTS UNTIL SUCH TIME IT CAN FIND A EFFEC SUBSTITUTE/ALTERNATE SOURCE CAPABLE OF MATCHING THE 30% OF JAPAN'S TOTE ENERGY PRODUCED BY SAME.
IMO Artic read, "SUBSTITUTE/ALTERNATE SOURCE" = NOT COAL???
IOW, "JAPAN CHERNOBYL" OR NO "JAPAN CHERNOBYL", JAPAN CAN'T STOP USING NUCENERGY.
[Arab News] The Eastern Province was in the eye of a severe sandstorm on Friday evening. Visibility was reduced to zero and a sharp wind, laden with sand, whipped down streets in Dammam, Dhahran, Alkhobar, Al-Hasa, Hafr Al-Batin, Ras Tanura and Jubail.
The storm started blanketing the region at 10 p.m. as sand-laden winds exceeding 25 mph made life difficult for motorists who drove with hazard lights on as they negotiated their way through the thick balls of yellow and orange dust. Within one hour, the streets were empty. At 11 p.m. Friday, Dammam looked like a ghost city.
A front man for the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment in Dammam said the storm would subside in six hours.
Traffic police reported a couple of accidents on the highways crisscrossing the province but reported no serious cases.
"Yes, the visibility has been reduced to zero in many cities," said Mohammad Al-Qahtani, the official weather forecaster. "It is a fierce sandstorm," he said and added that it originated in the Kingdom's north.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2011 00:00 ||
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[The Nation (Nairobi)] Radiation levels have surged in seawater near a tsunami-stricken nuclear power station in Japan, officials said today, as engineers battled to stabilise the plant in hazardous conditions.
Urgent efforts were under way to drain pools of highly radioactive water near the reactors, after several workers sustained radiation burns while installing cables as part of efforts to restore the critical cooling systems.
The new safety worries further complicated efforts to bring the ageing facility under control, and raised fears that the fuel rod vessels or their valves and pipes are leaking.
"It is becoming very important to get rid of the puddles quickly," said an official at the nuclear safety agency, Hidehiko Nishiyama.
One of the worst-case scenarios at reactor three would be that the fuel inside the reactor core -- a volatile uranium-plutonium mix -- has already started to burn its way through its steel pressure vessel.
Fire engines have hosed thousands of tonnes of seawater onto the plant in a bid to keep the fuel rods inside reactor cores and pools from being exposed to the air, where they could reach critical stage and go into full meltdown.
Several hundred metres offshore in the Pacific Ocean, levels of iodine-131 some 1,250 times the legal limit were detected Saturday, a ten-fold increase from just days earlier, operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. (Tepco) said.
Drinking a half-litre (20-ounce) bottle of fresh water with the same concentration would expose a person to their annual safe dose, Nishiyama said, but he ruled out an immediate threat to aquatic life and seafood safety.
"Generally speaking, radioactive material released into the sea will spread due to tides, so you need much more for seaweed and sea life to absorb it," he said.
Because iodine-131 decays relatively quickly with a half-life of eight days, "by the time people eat the sea products, its amount is likely to have diminished significantly," he said.
However, The well-oiled However... Tepco also reported levels of caesium-137 -- which has a longer half life of about 30 years -- almost 80 times the legal maximum. Scientists say both radioactive substances can cause cancer if absorbed by humans.
The government's assurances did little to lift the gloom that has hung over Japan since a 9.0-magnitude quake struck on March 11 and sent a huge tsunami crashing into the northeast coast in the country's worst post-war disaster.
The wave easily overwhelmed the world's biggest sea defences and swallowed entire communities. The confirmed corpse count rose to 10,151 on Saturday, with little hope seen for most of the 17,053 listed as missing.
The tsunami knocked out the cooling systems for the six reactors of the Fukushima plant, leading to suspected partial meltdowns in three of them. Hydrogen kabooms and fires have also destroyed the facility.
High-voltage electric cables have since been linked up to the reactors again and power has been partially restored in two reactor control rooms.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Gonna be tough to put a happy face on this...
SENDAI, Japan The radioactivity of water in Unit 2 of the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant in northeastern Japan has tested 10 million times higher than normal, the plant's operator said Sunday. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, speaking Sunday on TV talk shows, said the radioactive water is "almost certainly" seeping from a reactor core.
#2
NY Times:Two independent draft research papers by leading tsunami experts Eric Geist of the United States Geological Survey and Costas Synolakis, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Southern California indicate that earthquakes of a magnitude down to about 7.5 can create tsunamis large enough to go over the 13-foot bluff protecting the Fukushima plant.
Mr. Synolakis called Japans underestimation of the tsunami risk a cascade of stupid errors that led to the disaster and said that relevant data was virtually impossible to overlook by anyone in the field.
Perhaps the saddest observation by scientists outside Japan is that the inadequacy of anti-tsunami safeguards at Fukushima should have been recognized. In 1993 a magnitude 7.8 quake produced tsunamis with heights greater than 30 feet off Japans western coast. 1100 year old Japanese records indicate a tsunami swept a mile inland just north of the distress nuclear plant. Geologic investigations in Japan have shown deep deposits of ocean sand miles inland from the shoreline, implying destruction cause by huge tsunamis in prehistoric times,occurring about every 500 years over the last 2-7,000 years.
#4
Western Australia also has these deposits that indicate tsunamis that swept inland for several kilometers.
The thinking is they are too big to be caused by earthquakes and likely result from volcanic events - eruptions or collapses -, meteorite ocean impacts, or continental shelf sediment collapses.
#5
The Northern coast of Western Australia would be subject to impacts from Indonesia such as the Lake Toba eruption and the eruption of Krakatau in 535 which were larger than anything we have seen in modern history.
#6
Question for our civil engineers: is it reasonable to require building to once-in-500-years standards? It starting to sound like there should be no residences or key industries built except on the inland side of mountain ridges, just in case.
#7
TW - A central US nuke was designed for PMP - Probable Maximum Precipitation. Which I recall (from 30 years ago) was not much more than the 500 year event, which is not a lot more than the 100 year event. The pipes were not big enough to contain that storm, but we had to make sure the main access road did not flood.
Not far from there, in the 1970's, a part of Kansas City had a 100-year event on Friday and a 100 year event on Saturday - the next day. 100-year means a probability of one event in a 100-year period, or a 1% chance in any given year.
That also means a 37% chance it will not occur in 100 years, or a 13% chance it will not hit in 200 years. So you pay your money and you take your chances!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/27/2011 11:06 Comments ||
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#8
#6: Question for our civil engineers: is it reasonable to require building to once-in-500-years standards?
no
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2011 11:09 Comments ||
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#9
Re#3: I wonder if the Japanese will learn more from 3/11 than the US did from 9/11.
I wonder if the Japanese will USE what they have and will learn from 3/11 BETTER than the US did from 9/11.
#10
100-year means a probability of one event in a 100-year period, or a 1% chance in any given year. These calculated probabilities are all about predicting the future, a hazardous thing to attempt, and are built on models which cannot be tested ahead of time. The model of tsunami prediction used to safeguard Fukushima Daiichi was grossly in error.
#12
to expand: Partially depends on what materials. Homes are typically wood, which, barring termites, water damage, etc. last 50-100 years with no problems. Commercial buildings are typically concrete/steel/masonry. They outlast the elements, but not necessarily the economic interests: "outdated, non-expandable, 'doesn't fit our needs'", etc. It makes no sense to design to a 9.0 Quake when the surrounding infrastructure would be devastated. You design for "survivability during an event", not "no damage"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2011 16:35 Comments ||
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#13
One would be wise to design to 500 year standards if the if the thing was supposed to last 500 years, or if the potential impact of failure to do so would have impacts over 500 years.
Thus a supermarket lasting a few decades, which could be rebuilt in a few months, should not be built for much beyond normal building codes.
A cathedral intended to last for centuries, which takes a century to build, should be built at or above the 500 year maximum event.
A nuclear waste storage facility, i.e. a nuclear reactor, when it fails will contaminate large regions around it with isotopes that take centuries to decay. So even though the reactor was designed for only 50 years of use, the stuff inside it is much more problematic, and requires taking the long view in the design. That was done at Fukushima, for rain, weather and earthquakes, but not tsunamis. Oops, lesson learned.
#14
Fukushima Dai-ichi was designed for a 7 meter tsunami which was what they considered was the highest ever recorded there. A tsunami over 20 feet is still something quite spectacular. They ended up with a tsunami around twice that.
#16
crosspatch, let me be more clear, while the designers of Fukushima may have thought they were designing for a 500 year tsunami in the 60s, subsequent information available in the 90s (referenced above by #2) showed they had not.
A large part of the design problem is in doing and updating the assessments of risk for the future. When the information is not available or is proven to be wrong, then changing the way we use these structures until they can be upgraded is an important but often overlooked approach. The 1993 tsunami could have been used as evidence at Fukushima to move the spent fuel somewhere else or to protect the backup systems.
A similar problem has delayed the Yucca Mountain storage facility. We are asking for a 10000 year design, which is very hard to estimate. A better plan would be to ask for a 500 year design and plan to migrate everything into a subsequent facility in one or two centuries.
This approach also makes sense with respect to the nuclear fuel cycle, since more than 95% of a used nuclear fuel rod is still good fuel. After a century or two, most of the dangerous radioactive daughter atoms will have decayed, and the fuel rod can be safely reprocessed and reused prior to re-storage.
The important point is that selecting the design lifetime for a structure has real implications about not just the cost to build, use and retrofit, but also the seriousness of responding to information from new research that should update the initial estimates about design risks.
We don't need yucca mountain. That is Jimmy Carter's idiocy. We should be reprocessing the spent fuel. Two reactors and a reprocessing facility at each nuclear location. Once the initial fuel is delivered to the site, it never leaves, it is reprocessed. Any additional fuel sent to the site after the initial load is U238 only, never need to ship any more U235.
Google "smarter use of nuclear waste" in Scientific American.
You don't need to wait "a century or two" to reprocess the fuel, it can be done immediately. The French do it, India does it, Russia does it, Japan has just started.
The problem is that when that plant was designed, the idea of plate techtonics and continental drift were not yet accepted science. They had no idea they were building that plant right next to a subduction fault because there was no such thing as a subduction fault or a megathrust quake at the time.
In the context of 2011 knowledge, yeah, dumb idea. In the context of 1960's knowledge, perfectly fine.
In fact, all four of those older reactors were ALREADY slated for decommissioning. Unit 1 was to be decommissioned this month. The others (1-4) at 2 year intervals. Units 5 through 8 (7 and 8 currently under construction) were higher up (units 5 and 6 undamaged by tsunami).
Had this quake waited 10 years, we wouldn't be having this problem.
[Asharq al-Aswat] An Egyptian draft law that imposes prison sentences for some strike action violates international laws on freedom of assembly and must be scrapped, Human Rights Watch said on Saturday.
Last week, Egypt's military-backed government approved the draft law, which is valid for as long as Egypt's state of emergency is in force, saying the strikes were damaging the economy. It extends to those who organise strikes.
"This virtually blanket ban on strikes and demonstrations is a betrayal of the demands of Tahrir protesters for a free Egypt," said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch.
"Any genuine transition towards democracy must be based on respect for the basic rights of the people, including their right to demonstrate," she said in a statement which demanded the immediate reversal of the decision to ban strikes.
Some workers have pressed protests to demand better wages and working conditions after a popular uprising toppled Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... from power. Some strikes have disrupted the economy and hit Egypt's vital tourist industry, economic analysts say.
Egypt's government, facing a growing budget deficit, has said the law was not meant to outlaw peaceful demonstrations, but was meant to stop any "counter-revolution" from hijacking Egypt's revolution.
The rights group said the law had "overbroad and vague provisions" that did not meet "narrowly permitted grounds for limits on public assembly under international law."
Rights groups are concerned the provisions would give security forces sweeping powers of arrest. They have criticised the arrests of hundreds of peaceful protesters on charges of disrupting public order.
They say the military has jugged and in some cases tortured protesters, later bringing them to trial before military courts.
Egypt's interim military rulers have promised to lift decades-old emergency laws but have not given a timeframe.
"It's quite shocking, really, that a transitional government meant to replace a government ousted for its failure to respect free speech and assembly is now itself putting new restrictions on free speech and assembly," the group said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2011 00:00 ||
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[Arab News] With possessions balanced on their heads, about 1,000 people frantically crowded around buses rented by Mali to evacuate its citizens Friday from Ivory Coast, joining an estimated 1 million people who already have decamped amid fears of civil war.
More than 2 million Malians live in neighboring Ivory Coast, and human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... groups say the foreigners are facing growing threats of violence as the Ivorian political crisis intensifies. Evacuation efforts have been hampered by a lack of buses so far.
"700 today. 700 tomorrow. Everyone who wants to leave will be able to as long as I'm here," said Hamet Diawara, president of the council of Malians in Ivory Coast.
Incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo ... President of Ivory Coast since 2000. Gbagbo lost to Alassane Ouattara in 2010 but his representtive tore up the results on the teevee and Laurent has refused to leave despite the international community's hemming, hawing, and broad hints... has refused to cede office despite his rival Alassane Ouattara being recognized by the international community as the rightful winner of November's presidential election. Pro-Gbagbo forces have attacked foreigners from the region whose countries have supported Ouattara.
"We're afraid. Everyone's leaving," said Abdias Goita, a father of two who sat patiently in the shade next to the Malian buses. "My brother had his door broken down by pro-Gbagbo militias. He gave them all the money he had -- about 200,000 francs ($430) -- but they slit his throat anyway."
The United Nations ... aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society... said Friday that up to 1 million people have decamped the ensuing violence.
"The massive displacement in Abidjan and elsewhere is being fueled by fears of all-out war," Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told news hounds in Geneva.
The closure of banks and businesses is causing economic chaos in the already impoverished West African country, she said. Unemployment is rising, as are food prices.
On the main road between Abidjan and the border with Ghana, an AP cameraman saw hundreds of vehicles backed up more than 9 miles (15 kilometers) waiting to cross over.
Fleming said previous estimates had put the number of displaced in the whole country at 500,000, indicating a sharp rise in recent days.
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03/27/2011 00:00 ||
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#1
Compare wid TOPIX > {Barnabas Aid.org] MUSLIM CAMPAIGN TO CLEAR CHRISTIANITY FROM ETHIOPIA.
Total "Islamization" of Ethiopia, + control of the whole of the Horn of Africa = East AFrica???
[Iran Press TV] Hundreds of thousands of British opposing to the coalition government's budget cuts are marching in London streets, chanting for an alternative to the government's austerity cuts.
"It's a cloudy day, with a high of 57F. A pleasant London spring day for a march... we can read the signs to discover what it's about."
Tens of thousands of teachers, council staff, nurses, students, National Health Service (NHS) officials and many others who are angry at the public cut plans, mounting rates of unemployment, tax rises, pay cuts and pension reforms are partaking in the demonstration.
"Sure the country's economic situation is dire, but that doesn't mean we should suffer!"
About 800 coaches were planned to get people from across the country to London to participate in the rally, which is considered as the biggest public reaction against government's spending cuts since it took office in May 2010 following the general elections. The protesters began marching from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park.
Hundreds of people from North East traveled to London on Saturday morning to join the London protest. Demonstrators from Aberystwyth to Aberdeen and from Penzance to Perth also arrived in London to shout with the Londoners at the spending cuts.
British Education Secretary Michael Gove claimed that he could understand people's anger, but "the difficulty that we have as the government inheriting a terrible economic mess is that we have to take steps to bring the public finances back into balance."
Unite union's General Secretary Len McCluskey said the coalition government has exaggerated about the level of the deficit.
Describing his economic plan, McCluskey said, "Our alternative is to concentrate on economic growth through tax fairness so, for example, if the government was brave enough, it would tackle the tax avoidance that robs the British taxpayer of a minimum of £25bn a year."
Around 100 legal observers are monitoring the policing of the protest, and there are more representatives from other human rights ...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... groups on hand to offer advice to demonstrators.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2011 00:00 ||
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Anarchism Anarchism is a political philosophy which considers the state undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, and instead promotes a stateless society.
So these geniuses are protesting cuts in the size of governments? They are a disgrace to the anarchists cause
#2
Labour created a welfare dependency monster to cover its massive unemployment rate. Even that wasn't enough, so they made a massive increase in the size of government, to create the illusion of jobs and lower the welfare rolls.
And it's all coming to an end. This will mean massive unemployment *without* welfare, which guarantees public disturbance.
The easiest way to solve this is massive deportations of foreigners, even stripping many of the naturalized aliens of their citizenship and sending them packing(*).
#4
Tipper, any excuse to riot and break stuff is a good excuse for the anarchists...
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2011 10:59 Comments ||
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#5
So these geniuses are protesting cuts in the size of governments?
In practice, Anarchists have been allied with the Communists and even fought alongside them against Democrats and Royalists. Of course the Communists later turned on them and wiped them out, a detail not taught at uni.
#6
The Guardian et al. are falling all over themselves to argue that the violence of a small proportion of the demonstrators should not be allowed to overshadow the positive intent of the rest.
On the other hand, if one US soldier or marine carrying a hundred pounds of gear in 120 degree weather loses it, it's wall to wall coverage of the "atrocity."
Posted by: Matt ||
03/27/2011 14:56 Comments ||
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Hat tip Instapundit
The Florida House delivered a major blow to public employee unions Friday, approving a bill that would ban automatic dues deduction from a government paycheck and require members to sign off on the use of their dues for political purposes.
#2
Why should the taxpayers pick up tab for the State collecting the dues for the union? That makes the State the bag man for the unions. A bad practice.
I think we are witnessing the return of State Governments to the hands of the citizens.
The general stink that has been created by the public employee pensions in California and the general corruption of the state by the public employee unions, has gained the attention of a number of states in the throes of impending economic collapse.
When you realize how the employee unions have corrupted every public service provided by government for the benefit of a few, it is reminesent of the halycon days of the Communist party and the apparatik in the old USSR.
When this is over, we might see a return to politicians as public servants instead of vice versa. We can only hope the trend continues.
Posted by: Bill Clinton ||
03/27/2011 12:56 Comments ||
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#4
Ladies,
We are witnessing the return of "Im mad as hell and Im not going to take it anymore" into the public thinking.
Condoleeza Rice for President!
Posted by: Fi ||
03/27/2011 13:05 Comments ||
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#5
A union shouldn't get automatic paycheck deductions. If they truly serve the economic and political interests of a union member, they should have no problem securing their dues voluntarily, right?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2011 14:04 Comments ||
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#6
I regret to say Maryland is still back in the old days and old ways. House approved a family planning measure that increases by $6.5 million. They figure they will save $40 million by removing 4000 "unintended pregnancies". They also passed a bill extending collective bargaining to independent home health care providers who "engage in collective bargaining with state agencies".
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/27/2011 14:28 Comments ||
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#8
Why do you think the unions are so up-in-arms about the loss of automatic (and generally unseen) payroll deduction of dues?
It has nothing to do with the workers - or more precisely an awfull lot about the workers realizing how much the unions are taking verses what services they are providing (and how much the workers are forced to pay to a specific political party).
(Should do the same with State and Federal taxes too IMHO)
#9
and their Democrat friends are cringing in fear of the Unions not having that easy campaign cash to offer up. It will take quite a while for the "undocumented voters" to make up that diff...say... a 100 years?
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2011 15:18 Comments ||
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#10
Unions are covered under right to assemble. Fine. That also means the right to choose not to assemble. No required memberships, especially fee related, in any way shape or form period.
Quite true Frank, guy on local morning news last week said as much, though admittedly Kansas Unions are farm team at best.
That being said, anyone else notice a flurry of Firefighter Union ads recently, besides us in OK and KS?
#11
That being said, anyone else notice a flurry of Firefighter Union ads recently, besides us in OK and KS?
Seattle State TV is also fat with a rather full menu of all public employee 'its for the children' ads.
#12
nota bene:
I'm in one of those awful evil unions (required by my status as pillager of taxpayers and lay-about whore engineer). I pay only the minimum dues, and refuse to support their political activities as I have ethics and generally don't agree with their politics
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/27/2011 19:06 Comments ||
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#13
What should be striking is they had the power to make the states collect their dues for them in the first place.
#14
...awe come on, it wasn't the 'state', as the institution on paper, but the 'state' as in one political party. They're joined at the hips. Unions have legally bought and paid for direct representation on the legislative floor and the executives [and is now working to operate the Judiciary as well if Wisconsin is a example of their next grab for power]. They don't need no stinking bargaining outside what they get their agents on that floor to do for them. The people who pay the taxes that fund the government have no one working for their interests except for the occasional node from the other party when its not engaging in 'bi-partisan' sell outs or, as corporations, have bought their own as well.
#16
Remember - when Obama had that big meeting on Obamacare.... the Unions - specifically the United Auto Workers - were fully represented and could (and did) name their terms.
The american voters were expressly excluded from the secret meetings.
BERLIN - Some 200,000 people on Saturday turned out in Germany's largest cities to protest against the use of nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster, police and organizers said.
In Berlin alone more than 100,000 took to the capital's streets to urge Germany's leaders to immediately abolish nuclear power, police spokesman Jens Berger said. Organizers said some 210,000 people marched at the "Fukushima Warns: Pull the Plug on all Nuclear Power Plants" rallies in the country's four largest cities.
You folks do have a plan to replace the power you'll lose, right?
They'll only recharge their mobile phones when they're down to almost zero bars. That should do it.
The disaster at Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility triggered Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative government last week to order a temporary shut down of seven of the country's older reactors pending thorough safety investigations. Officials have since hinted several of them might never go back into service.
I suppose we'll eventually get the Libyan oil flowing again. Or perhaps there's enough coal in the Ruhr Valley. What's a little smog?
Protesters shouted "Switch them off," urging the government to shut down the country's 17 reactors for good. They also held a minute of silence to remember the victims of Japan's March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
How... human of them.
Nuclear power has been very unpopular in Germany ever since radioactivity from the 1986 Chernobyl disaster drifted across the country. A center-left government a decade ago penned a plan to abandon the technology for good by 2021, but Merkel's government last year amended it to extend the plants' lifetime by an average of 12 years. In a complete U-turn, the government has now put that plan on hold.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/27/2011 00:00 ||
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France is willing to sell the Germans all the electricity they want. Just don't ask where it came from.
[Straits Times] CAMBODIA'S war crimes court will hear appeals next week in the case of of former Khmer Rouge cadre Duch, who is seeking acquittal despite admitting running a feared jail where thousands died.
Duch, 68, was sentenced to 35 years in prison last July for war crimes and crimes against humanity for overseeing the deaths of 15,000 people at the notorious torture prison Tuol Sleng in the late 1970s.
The jailer, whose real name is Kaing Guek Eav, was the first former Khmer Rouge cadre to face an international tribunal.
His sentence was reduced to 30 years on the grounds that he had been jugged illegally for years. And given time already served, Duch could walk free in less than 19 years, much to the dismay of many victims of the brutal 1975-1979 regime.
Prosecutors are also appealing, hoping to have Duch's sentence increased to life, to be commuted to 45 years for time served in unlawful detention.
During his trial, Duch repeatedly apologised for overseeing mass murder at the detention centre, also known as S-21, but shocked the court by asking to be acquitted in his closing statement in November 2009.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2011 00:00 ||
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Chutzpah: Kill 15,000 of your fellow Cambodians, then ask for acquittal because you're an orphan, due to your country disowning you.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Laurent Gbagbo
BERLIN - Some 200,000 people on Saturday turned out in Germany's largest cities to protest against the use of nuclear power in the wake of Japan's Fukushima reactor disaster, police and organizers said.
