14,000 U.S. Deaths Tied to Fukushima Reactor Disaster Fallout

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2011 -- Impact Seen As Roughly Comparable to Radiation-Related Deaths After Chernobyl; Infants Are Hardest Hit, With Continuing Research Showing Even Higher Possible Death Count.
An estimated 14,000 excess deaths in the United States are linked to the radioactive fallout from the disaster at the Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to a major new article in the December 2011 edition of the International Journal of Health Services. This is the first peer-reviewed study published in a medical journal documenting the health hazards of Fukushima.

Authors Joseph Mangano and Janette Sherman note that their estimate of 14,000 excess U.S. deaths in the 14 weeks after the Fukushima meltdowns is comparable to the 16,500 excess deaths in the 17 weeks after the Chernobyl meltdown in 1986. The rise in reported deaths after Fukushima was largest among U.S. infants under age one. The 2010-2011 increase for infant deaths in the spring was 1.8 percent, compared to a decrease of 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 weeks...

Full Article:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/medical-journal-article-14000-us-deaths-tied-to-fukushima-reactor-disaster-fallout-2011-12-19

Russians & North Koreans in Iran: Collateral Damage?

From OilPrice.com:
As the drums for direct military intervention to derail Iran’s purported covert military nuclear weapons program beat louder in both Jerusalem and Washington, an overlooked issue is the possibility of international “collateral damage,” to use the Pentagon’s favourite euphemism for civilian casualties.

On 14 November South Korea’s Chosun Ilbo stated, "Hundreds of North Korean scientists and engineers are working at about 10 nuclear and missile facilities in Iran, including Natanz, The North Koreans are apparently rotated every six months." Russian technicians also remain at Iran’s first nuclear electrical energy facility, Bushehr. So, any aerial strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities could result in significant numbers of dead Russian and North Korean specialists as “collateral damage,” with all the diplomatic uncertainties that might ensue from Moscow and Pyongyang as the body bags start arriving home.

The https://www.cia.gov/ website, which listed the report, describes the Chosun Ilbo website as “conservative in editorial orientation -- strongly nationalistic, anti-North Korea, and generally pro-U.S.”

For those looking for more smoking guns, Japan’s Sankei Shimbun reports that among the Iranian sites the North Koreans have been involved in are three research centres carrying out simulations of how to trigger nuclear weapons.

The news complicates the situation for advocates of a “clean” surgical strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Airstrike Against Iranian Nuclear Facilities Could Kill 100s of North Koreans and Russians John Daly
Wednesday, 16 November 2011
http://oilprice.com/Geo-Politics/Middle-East/Airstrike-Against-Iranian-Nuclear-Facilities-Could-Kill-100s-of-North-Koreans-and-Russians.html

Report Shreds Japan's Carefully Constructed Fukushima Scenario

New International Report Shreds Japan's Carefully Constructed Fukushima Scenario
John Daly
Wednesday, 02 November 2011
http://oilprice.com/Alternative-Energy/Nuclear-Power/New-International-Report-Shreds-Japan-s-Carefully-Constructed-Fukushima-Scenario.html

Japan’s six reactor Fukushima Daichi nuclear complex has inadvertently become the world’s bell-weather poster child for the inherent risks of nuclear power ever since the 11 March Tohoku offshore earthquake, measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, triggered a devastating tsunami that effectively destroyed the complex.

Ever since, specialists have wrangled about how damaging the consequences of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami actually were, not only for the facility but the rest of the world.

The Fukushima Daichi complex was one of the 25 largest nuclear power stations in the world and the Fukushima I reactor was the first GE designed nuclear plant to be constructed and run entirely by the Tokyo Electric Power Company, or TEPCO.

Needless to say, in the aftermath of the disaster, both TEPCO and the Japanese government were at pains to minimize the disaster’s consequences, hardly surprising given the country’s densely populated regions.

But now, an independent study has effectively demolished TEPCO and the Japanese government’s carefully constructed minimalist scenario. Mainichi news agency reported that France’s l’Institut de Radioprotection et de Surete Nucleaire (Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety, or IRSN) has issued a recent report stating that the amount of radioactive cesium-137 that entered the Pacific after 11 March was probably nearly 30 times the amount stated by Tokyo Electric Power Co. in May.

According to IRSN, the amount of the radioactive isotope cesium-137 that flowed into the ocean from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant between March 21 and mid-July reached an estimated 27.1 quadrillion becquerels.

Why should this matter? Aren’t the Japanese authorities on top of the issue?

Cesium-137 can cause burns, acute radiation sickness and even death at sufficient doses. It can contaminate food and water and, if ingested, gets distributed around the body, where it builds up in soft tissues, such as muscles. Over time, it is expelled from the body in urine.

And where might tingested cesium-137 come from?

Seafood, anyone? One of the problems of the release of radioactivity into a maritime environment is that is represents a cumulative food chain, from plankton consumed by larger organisms, as evidenced by mercury contamination of swordfish, none of whom swam around ingesting globules of the silvery metal.

IRSN estimated that of the total amount, 82 percent had flowed into the sea by 8 April, adding that the Pacific was polluted at exceptional speed because the devastated Fukushima Daichi nuclear power plant (NPP) is situated in a coastal area with strong currents.

If the IRSN report contained any good news, it was that the impact of the cesium-137 contamination on marine life in remote waters is likely to lessen later this year.

The radioactive silver lining? Radioactive cesium-137 has a half life of roughly 30 years, so if the IRSN estimates are accurate, then my 2041 the Pacific’s aquatic life will only be subjected to a mere 13.55 quadrillion becquerels of radiation.

This is not to suggest that Japanese will shortly be keeling over from consuming their sushi but rather, that for better or for worse, a significant amount of cesium 137 has entered the Pacific’s aquatic environment, and the long-term effects of low-level exposure on the population consuming Pacific seafood are unknown. Numerous tests since 1945, when before it was believed that only massive bursts of radiation were hazardous to human health, have documented the insidious effects of long-term, low level radiological exposure to humans.

Fukushima sits at the nexus where the Kuroshio Current, running northward off the eastern coast of Japan, collides with the cold subarctic Oyashio Current that flows southwards, circulating counterclockwise along the western North Pacific Ocean. Their interaction produces the North Pacific Current, a slow warm water eastwards flowing current between 40 and 50 degrees north in the Pacific Ocean. In the eastern northern Pacific, the North Pacific Current divides into the southern flowing California Current and the northern Alaska Current.

The potential level of pollution outlined in the IRSN report indicate that it is long overdue for both TEPCO and the Japanese government to stop dribbling out information about the true state of events since Fukushima was devastated, and that foreign governments, particularly the United States, whose western shores are washed by the same currents that pass by Fukushima, insist that they do so.

While trillions of dollars are at stake in the worldwide nuclear industry, the potential health consequences are now simply too significant to ignore.

Happy birthday Jessica Michibata!

I can't believe we've neglected the devastatingly cute Jessica Michibata, a beautiful Japanese model and girlfriend of F1 world champ Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE.

It's her birthday today, so it seems like a good time to correct our mistake.

Happy birthday!

Banning fictional child pornography is wrong

I'll let the Ottawa Citizen introduce the subject:

Ottawa Citizen: Crimes of imagination

Canada has charged an American and is threatening him with at least a year in jail because he came over the border in 2010 with comics on his laptop, comics the customs officer decided were child pornography. If he's convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of a year for importing the material. This case and others like it demonstrate the flaws in Canada's law.

According to the Comic Book Legal Defence Fund, the comics were in the "manga" style that originated in Japan (Astro Boy and Sailor Moon are examples of manga comics. Charles Brownstein of the CBLDF says he believes the comics in this case include images of stick figures in sexual positions).

The Canadian law criminalizes fictional child pornography, by which I mean pornographic material like drawings or text that features children, but that no real children were abused in the making of. I'll let the Citizen finish:

But Canada's current law goes beyond pornography that causes harm to children. It also makes some works of the imagination - stories and drawings - illegal if they depict people under the age of 18 in sexual situations. Many classic works of art might meet that definition, and the law does allow for a defence on the grounds of artistic merit. This puts the courts in the bizarre position of determining what is a work of art. Citizens cannot hope to know in advance what the law really forbids, and whether the judge will share their opinion of what is art. Policing the way you express yourself on a piece of paper or on your laptop comes awfully close to policing your thoughts.

Judges are not meant to be arbiters of taste; they are meant to balance rights in a free society. Imaginary people do not have rights.

Similar laws are in the works in Finland as well, where it will join other highly questionable laws that already make even the definition of child pornography arbitrary. In fact, Finnish courts are already not only determining what constitutes art, but also whether parody is succesful, because that is the determining criterion to whether a parody constitutes an IP violation. So in Finland, courts determining what is art won't be anything new.

If you think they're exaggerating about policing thoughts, by the way, Finland's state police have already applied for a law criminalizing talking about having sex with children in an approving manner. I so wish I was making that up.

**

There are those who say that protecting children from sexual abuse is so important that we must do anything to stop it. Whatever one may think of this, laws against fictional child pornography fail on that count.

Daily Mail: Charity's anger at proposal to make child porn legal 'to protect children from abusers'

The research found that child sex crimes fell when child pornography was more easily accessible.

The discovery tallies with similar studies in Denmark and Japan, where child pornography is not illegal, that found incidences of child sex abuse were lower in those countries.

The conclusion of the new study is that ‘artificially-produced’ child pornography should be made available to prevent real children being abused.

Pornography was strictly prohibited in the Czech Republic between 1948 and 1989.

The ban was lifted with the country's transition to democracy and, by 1990, the availability and ownership of sexually explicit materials rose dramatically. Even the possession of child pornography was not a criminal offence.

Diamond and his team looked at what actually happened to sex-related crimes as it moved from having a strict ban on sexually explicit materials to the material being decriminalised.

Results from the Czech Republic showed that rape and other sex crimes have not increased following the legalisation and wide availability of pornography.

Most significantly, the incidence of child sex abuse has fallen considerably since 1989, when child pornography became readily accessible – a phenomenon also seen in Denmark and Japan.

They also found that the number of cases of indecent exposure and other, less serious, sex crimes fell dramatically in the wake of pornography becoming more readily available.

The researchers say: ‘As with adult pornography appearing to substitute for sexual aggression everywhere it has been investigated, we believe the availability of child porn does similarly.’

So not only are no children harmed in the making of fictional child pornography, its availability seems to decrease sex crimes against children. In general, pornography decreases sex crime, so this finding makes sense. I know that this cuts no ice with determined anti-pornography crusaders, who replace scientific data with claims that porn makes you gay, but the reality is that fictional child pornography, if anything, seems to make children more safe.

However, that's a terrible argument for not banning it. The Ottawa Citizen put it quite nicely when they said:

There's no point in having a right to free speech if we make exceptions for everything that people find distasteful or offensive.

In fact, that's the kind of free speech we have in Finland; our constitution guarantees Finnish citizens freedom of expression, except when constrained by law. In other words, our constitution gives us a right to say things that we're not banned from saying. Some right! The only place I can think of that doesn't allow its citizens to do things that aren't specifically forbidden is the fictional city of Raseir in the classic CRPG Quest for Glory 2, which boasted a street named "Everything Not Mandatory is Forbidden". So we, as Finnish citizens, have more rights than the inhabitants of a fictional computer game dictatorship.

Hooray!

But I digress. As a criterion for banning expression, the harm it causes is a dangerous guideline. In nearly every debate on free speech, someone quotes the example of shouting "fire!" in a crowded theater. It might be salutary to remember where the expression comes from: it was used by Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., to justify sentencing a man to six months in prison for distributnig anti-draft leaflets. It was the judge's opinion that inciting people against the draft posed a "clear and present danger" to the United States, and was therefore illegal.

This tug-of-war between the desire to criminalize dissent and uphold freedom of expression should serve to point out that the harmfulness or harmlessness of speech is insufficient in itself as a criterion. Harm is a flexible concept that can be stretched a long way, and if we subordinate free expression to a critetion of harm, are we really willing to ban anything that can be considered, or even proven, to have harmful effects?

Suppose that someone demonstrated that people who read detective novels are more likely to commit violent crime than people who don't? Or, to take a real-life example, someone came up with data to support the decades-old idea that comic books predispose childrne to crime? Would you then be willing to ban detective novels and comic books under the same criteria as fictional child pornography? After all, they'd be harmful. Remember that as far as we know, no form of expression can directly cause a person to commit a crime; all they can do is predispose. That's a matter of much correlation and very little causation.

This is why it's dangerous, and I believe in many cases morally dishonest to argue against banning fictional child pornography just by quoting its beneficial effect on sex crime rates. That isn't actually an argument in favor of freedom of expression; it's an argument that this particular kind of expression is beneficial and should therefore be allowed. It's a whole different story, and begs the question: if the data should be refuted by a better study, would you change your mind? And would you support the hypothetical comic-book ban if data in its favor were produced? If not, you're making a morally dishonest argument.

**

In other words, this isn't a question of whether fictional child pornography is beneficial or harmful, but of what the limits of free expression are. It's been shown time and again that juging expression by the harm it supposedly causes is a primrose path to censorship. I can't believe that even the most ardent anti-child pornography crusaders would want to live in a country where all expresion is regulated based on whether it's deemed harmful to society or not. There's practically no limit to what such a dystopia might end up banning. After all, people are healthier if they're happy; therefore things that make them unhappy make them less healthy, and are therefore harmful. Under this rationale anything could be banned.

The only rationale for the outright ban on child pornography is that a child was necessarily abused to create the image. It should be recognized that this is also a problematic piece of reasoning; technically, it could equally well be used to ban pictures of terrorist attacks. Even if we accept the ban on child pornography, we can't extend it to fictional child pornography using the same rationale, because no children were necessarily abused for its creation. We don't ban other fictional depictions of crime, even other fictional depictions of sex crime, so why should the sexual abuse of children be treated differently?

Any ban of fictional child pornography necessarily creates one of two disturbing precedents: either that expression can be regulated according to its harmfulness, or that when it comes to child pornography, a different standard of civil rights prevails. Finland is currently pursuing the latter policy. Neither should be chosen by a free country.

Happy birthday Hiromi Oshima!

Today is Hiromi Oshima's birthday! The gorgeous Japanese model made history in 2004 by becoming the first ever Japanese Playmate when she was crowned Miss July.

She's maybe not quite the hottest Playmate ever, but pretty damn close.

Happy birthday Hiromi!

Missing in Japan

MSNBC: Where are Japan's missing centenarians?

TOKYO — Japan prides itself on the world's longest life expectancy but is struggling with a disturbing footnote to that statistic — revelations that hundreds of people listed as its oldest citizens are either long dead or haven't been heard from for decades.

The mystery of the missing centenarians has captured the attention of this rapidly graying nation with reports of scamming relatives and overworked social workers and sad tales of old people, isolated and forgotten, simply slipping out of touch with society.

The story unfolded in late July when police discovered that Sogen Kato, who would have been 111 and was thought to be Tokyo's oldest man, had actually been dead for 32 years, his decayed and partially mummified body still in his home.

Police are investigating his family for possible abandonment and pension fraud.

That discovery led officials around the country to check up on the centenarians in their own districts, and what they found has been shocking.

Of course, the big question is this: what will this do to their life expectancy statistics?

Axis powers celebrate F1 win

(with apologies to the Runoff Area)

The Axis powers scored a potentially decisive victory over the Allies in Belgium last weekend, as Finland, Italy and Germany took the podium at the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa. The highest-placing Allied driver, Mark Webber of the Australian Imperial Force, only came in ninth.

The F1 series, a global conflict being stage-managed by a diminutive man with dictatorial powers and funny hair, will next break out in Italy one week from now. Britain's Jenson Button leads the championship, with the Pact of Steel of Rubens Barrichello and Sebastian Vettel not far behind.

Despite near-universal agreement that Kimi Räikkönen won the race, the Finnish government has strongly denied participating in F1. "Mr. Räikkönen was not driving in the Belgian Grand Prix," Finnish foreign ministry spokesman Dr. Korhonen insisted. "He was driving a separate Grand Prix series and merely happened to find himself on the same track as the other drivers. This was pure coincidence. Any suggestion that Finnish drivers are participating in Formula One are false, and stem from an inability to understand Finland's unique strategic position." McLaren's PR department supported the Finnish government, openly scoffing at reports of a second Finnish driver in the race.

This year, the constructors' championship is firmly in Allied hands, although their lead in the drivers' series is not secure. French team Renault won two consecutive drivers' championships before surrendering, leaving the series a free-for-all with consecutive Axis and Allied victories in the drivers' series and an Axis-dominated constructors' series.

The strategic landscape of F1 is set to change next year with the United States entering the conflict, but hopes for a strong initial showing are not high. The United States team is widely considered to be inexperienced, and is expected to take time to fully mobilize their potential. Until USF1's application to join the F1 series, US motorsport had been governed by the Monroe Doctrine, limiting F1 to a maximum of two races in North America and restricting American drivers to the isolationist Champ Car imitation series and that thing where they drive around ovals.

Also in the wake of the Belgian GP, Pakistan's Minister of Defence (below) has accused India of destabilizing the region after Force India took their first podium. Minister Turgidson claims that the success of the Indian team has led to the creation of a dangerous "motorsports gap".

Pakistan is responding to what the Minister of Defence called "irresponsible Indian escalation" by founding several kart racing series, but UN officials are trying to broker a strategic racing limitation treaty to stop a "motorsports race" between the two countries.

Meanwhile, reports that South Korea has secured funding for its 2010 Grand Prix did not seem to concern North Korean representatives. They scoffed at the decadent practice of driving cars, pointing out that North Korea has no cars, or indeed anything motorized whatsoever, and is still the world's third-largest economy, with a higher standard of living than Japan. A reporter who questioned their figures was shot. Also, North Korean representatives pointed out that the Great Leader, Kim Jong-il, had previously set a lap time of 1:44.82 around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, a full two seconds faster than Sebastian Vettel's fastest lap in this year's Grand Prix, and furthermore, the Great Leader set his time on foot.

The next race is set for Sunday, September 13th, pending an FIA investigation into possible French use of Brazilian kamikaze pilots in last year's series. By international accord, the practice of fielding a completely inept second driver for the sole purpose of causing destruction on the track is permitted only for the now defunct Super Aguri team.

Travestin med unga protagonister

J-RPG är en ovanligt tacksam genre att hata och attacker. Varför är det så, kan man tänka. Svaren är givetvis självklara: en överväldigande majoritet följer samma mall (och spelen görs i Japan, där alla är konstiga, som Radical Rat redan har påpekat).

Jag ska börja med att peka ut en av alla föraktliga tendenser som finns i dessa patetiska ursäkter till spel.

Unga hjältar.

Detta är något som tycks dyka upp gång på gång, även i spel som faller utanför uselheten och istället är njutbara (Secret of Mana, exempelvis). Hjälten, eller hjältarna, beger sig ut i den stora vida världen innan de har hunnit få skäggväxt. Trots deras späda ålder är de dessutom skickliga monsterslaktare, som dessutom hinner bli oerhört skickliga på en - tycks det - kort tidsrymd. Det är bara att jämföra statistiken för en karaktär på level 1 och level 50. Inlärningskurvan är onekligen snabb för dessa ynglingar...

Alla dessa unga hjältar som ska hämnas sin familjs död och rädda världen och vad de nu håller på med är irriterande, men det har sina förklaringar. Det är helt enkelt genvägar för lata spelmakare. Karaktärer som ännu inte har nått någon beundransvärd ålder behöver inte ha en lika detaljerad bakgrundhistoria som äldre karaktärer, vilket gör det lätt att bara skyffla ut dem i världen utan vidare betänkligheter. Det är dessutom omöjligt för dem att hämnas sina stackars föräldrar om föräldrarna redan har hunnit dö av hög ålder.

Många som spelar TV-spel är unga. Att ha en protagonist i en jämförbar ålder kan tänkas bättra på igenkännligheten med enkla medel. Tror jag. Manusskribenterna (om det finns några?) tycks tro det i alla fall. Att känna närhet med hjälten är naturligtvis eftersträvansvärt, men lite mer jobb är att förvänta från spelmakarna. Exempelvis genom att ha en bra handling... Vilket jag återkommer till någon annan dag.

Traditionen med snorungar till världsfrälsare återkommer lite varstans, exempelvis fantasyromaner, men det innebär inte att man kan förlåta fantasilösheten. Antagligen är lättjan den primära anledningen till travestin. Det är beklagligt.

Ett avskräckande exempel på användandet av unga protagonister är Final Fantasy III (ugh). Fyra idioter, alla unga, som blir utvalda av någon mumbojumbogud för att rädda världen. Kan det bli värre? Antagligen inte.

90/100 i Storbritanniens Nintendomagasin. Inte konstigt att det suger.

Snarls By Jaws of Ice

Hej, kära läsare. Var några dagar sedan jag postade ett inlägg nu, men min bundsförvant Ab Alien verkar gjort ett gott jobb att underhålla er.

Något jag verkligen avskyr, mer än väldigt mycket annat, är alla eejits som på senare tid börjat dyrka Japan och japaner. Jag avskyr japaner, med undantag för de små, söta japanska flickorna som landet huserar. Jag behöver inte en valid anledning till att dra ett helt land över en kam. Varför inte? Jag har suttit länge och ofta och försökt hitta något som ryms i en enda länk som summerar hela den japanska kulturen. Först nu har jag lyckats, mina läsare.

Se och förundras

Nu ska jag röka en cigg och masturbera till riktigt hård porr (obs, inte den ovan). Farväl, för nu!