IAEA Director General's Update on Tsunami and Earthquake Emergency Response

12 March 2011, 2000 CET IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano provided a video statement on the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. Director General Amano expressed his sincerest condolences for the lives and homes lost, and said "My heart goes out to the people of my home country as they rise to the challenge of this immense tragedy."

Director General Amano notes the current effort to prevent further damage to Unit 1 reactor at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

In response to the situation, Director General Amano also explained the IAEA's dual role to use emergency communication channels to exchange verified, official information between Japan and other IAEA Member States, as well as to coordinate the delivery of international assistance, should Japan or other affected countries request it.

Great info regarding Fukushima Daiichi and Fukushima Daini

http://www.tepco.co.jp/en/press/corp-com/release/index-e.html

http://twitter.com/#!/N_E_I

http://twitter.com/#!/iaeaorg

http://www.facebook.com/iaeaorg?sk=wall

VNV Nation - Frika

I love the pounding beat and high tension in this song. I've found that I enjoy running while listening to it (among several other high energy VNV tunes). As an aside, I've never experienced true rage, but if I did, this song would be part of the soundtrack to said rage...



Lyrics:

Over time desire shall fall and lie and fade
Await unequaled thought and virtuosity
Desire lies in wait, a precious cup, a stone or some such
Absent moments, ones which raised the heart to stand so great

Cannot choose not to deny
Blame falls easy silently
Darkness preferable, comfort found again
In solitude, a door into an empty room
A door to familiar desolation
The spoils of past years lost for reason
Lost for some notions of new days

Inside there is gentleness
Calm preceding tears
Oh, cry again, cry again
Moment of toil, moment of toil

Call the Gods to answer me
Hear me say, 'Oh, hear my pain!'
Call the Gods to answer me
Frika come! Frika come!

Promise and enlightenment abounded
Felled like trees and pillars that held me high
Running blind, running blind
On stony ground I stumble and vow return

Inside there is gentleness
Calm preceding tears
Oh, cry again, cry again
Moment of toil, moment of toil
Call the Gods to answer me
Hear me say, 'Oh, hear my pain!'
Call the Gods to answer me.
Frika come! Frika come!

Inside there is anger now
Calm precedes the rage
Cry again, oh, cry again
Moment of toil, moment of toil
Call the Gods to answer me
Hear me say, 'Hear my pain!'
All the Gods to answer me
Frika come! Oh, Frika come!

10K day

No matter what you believe (or don't believe)....

The people of Japan need your prayers (or best wishes) and more than likely in the next days, weeks and months, will require help.

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Closely tied to this, but more up my alley regarding work, the newswires and twitterverse are blazing with stories about Japanese nuke plants. In particular, the worst affected plant appears to be Fukushima Daiichi. The latest news (as I'm typing this) is that the plant might release "radioactive vapor".

To be clear, this is a well-established (and highly monitored/controlled) strategy to minimize the effects following an emergency situation at a nuclear power plant. As always, I would rather hear the info from the horse's mouth than twitter or most news outlets because there are plenty of people who have an agenda or are slightly (or grossly) misinformed. You might say that the "horse's mouth" might tell lies. I tend to believe that the operators of these plants want to be truthful because if it comes out that they withheld the truth, there will be heck to pay in the end.

Regarding the horse's mouth...

If you can read Japanese:

http://www.tepco.co.jp/tepconews/index-j.html

http://www.nisa.meti.go.jp/

http://kinkyu.nisa.go.jp/

Translated:

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.tepco.co.jp%2Ftepconews%2Findex-j.html

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nisa.meti.go.jp%2F

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fkinkyu.nisa.go.jp%2F

"Creating The United States" & "Thomas Jefferson's Library" exhibitions via the Library of Congress...

Creating The United States

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Thomas Jefferson's Library

I was just getting ready to do some running..

I figured I'd download some MORE up-tempo beat driven music. Example:

Enjoy!!!!

Creative Music by Zzaj

Browns Ferry docs, Crack and the McBeast, Top 10 THOMAS items

NRC documents for Browns Ferry from 2/26/2011-3/5/2011:

1. ML110550646 - Browns Ferry, Unit 1 - American Society of Mechanical Engineers Section Xl, Inservice Inspection, System Pressure Test, Containment Inservice Inspection, and Repair and Replacement Programs - Owner's Activity Report for Cycle 8 Operation.
2. ML110460496 - Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant, Unit 1 - Safety Evaluation For Relief Request 1-ISI-26, "Risk-Informed Inservice Inspection Program."
3. ML110610641 - NRC Report 0 5000259/2010005, 05000260/2010005, and 05000296/2010005; Preliminary Greater Than Green Finding Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant.

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So, the wife unit, one each, was part of a craft show this weekend. I had hoped that I would get called to work some OT (daytime) on Saturday, but that just wasn't to be. Anyway, I learned two things. I probably learned more than that, but two things stuck out prominently in my mind.

First thing...

I LOVE THIS STUFF. I just made two batches (one for home and one for work). It's called cracker candy, but it's more like crack...

Second...

After I dropped Suzanne off on Saturday, I figured I'd give McDonald's new oatmeal a try. I was eating my tasty oatmeal fairly close to the order counter. Dude's order came out to be $6.66. Neither he nor the cashier would have that. The cashier suggested another item to change the total from the mark of the McBeast. The additional item order was on the tip of the customer's tongue right before the cashier made her suggestion. I'm sorry, but I am NOT concerned if there are thirteen folks at a table or a transaction comes out to a certain amount. My humble opinion: Such fears are extraordinarily IRRATIONAL.

I DO realize why people say they do such things.

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Top ten legislative items searched on THOMAS, compiled on 3/6/2011 from weekly usage statistics

1. H.R. 1 - [112th] - Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
2. H.R. 662 - [112th] - Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2011
3. H.R. 3 - [112th] - No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act
4. H.R. 4 - [112th] - Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayments Act of 2011
5. H.R. 3590 - [111th] - Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
6. H.R. 3082 - [111th] - Continuing Appropriations and Surface Transportation Extensions Act, 2011
7. H.R. 514 - [112th] - FISA Sunsets Extension Act of 2011
8. H.R. 4173 - [111th] - Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act
9. H.R. 4709 - [111th] - E 2 for Innovation Act
10. H.R. 1 - [111th] - American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

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