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Spanish economy again showing cracks Americablog. Excerpts:
This sounds like another "not if, but when" problem for the Spanish economy. The immediate focus today is on Greece but if this bond sale is any indication, Spain may be the next concern. The problems in Greece, Ireland and Portugal will be minor compared to Spain due to the size of the economy.
Greenspan: The 'almost certain' Greece default could cause US double-dip And he oughta know, considering the major part he's played creating this global financial Apocalypse. Excerpts:
Some of the most important debate over responsibility for the economic and financial market mess we now find ourselves in comes in the treatment of former Fed chief Alan Greenspan who, surprisingly, keeps popping up in the news after offering opinions to captive audiences as part of a quite lucrative post-Fed career as a public speaker.
What is most surprising about these accounts is that they no longer routinely carry the disclaimers that once adorned nearly every story about the former Fed chairman back in 2007 and 2008 - about how Alan Greenspan is thought to be largely responsible for our current predicament.
Typical of the lot is this report in Bloomberg by Joshua Zumbrun that treats yesterday's speech before a gathering of Credit Union representatives in Washington as the observations of an interested bystander rather than someone who was controlling the most important interest rate levers and directing the nation's regulatory bodies during the gestation period of the monstrous bubble.
And:
By a fairly wide margin, Alan Greenspan was judged "the economist most responsible for causing the Global Financial Crisis" with Milton Friedman and Larry Summers finishing a distant second and third, respectively.
I wonder if Greenspan ever wonders if he'll live long enough to stand trial.
What is this; Day 2? Video of the Riots in Athens.
The entire Eurozone is under pressure. How will that intensity manifest?
#Radiation in Japan: Nosebleed, Diarrhea, Lack of Energy in Children in Koriyama City, Fukushima Ex-SKF via Godlike Productions.
Once a malicious "baseless rumor" on the net, now it is written up in a regional newspaper with readership in Tokyo and Kanto area.
Tokyo Shinbun (paper edition only, 6/16/2011) reports that many children in Koriyama City in Fukushima Prefecture, 50 kilometers from Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, are suffering inexplicable nosebleed, diarrhea, and lack of energy since the nuke plant accident.
Fukushima: It's much worse than you think Al Jazeera, via Godlike Productions.
"Fukushima is the biggest industrial catastrophe in the history of mankind," Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear industry senior vice president, told Al Jazeera.
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"Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed," he said, "You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled, and there is no means to cool them effectively."
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Independent scientists have been monitoring the locations of radioactive "hot spots" around Japan, and their findings are disconcerting.
"We have 20 nuclear cores exposed, the fuel pools have several cores each, that is 20 times the potential to be released than Chernobyl," said Gundersen. "The data I'm seeing shows that we are finding hot spots further away than we had from Chernobyl, and the amount of radiation in many of them was the amount that caused areas to be declared no-man's-land for Chernobyl. We are seeing square kilometres being found 60 to 70 kilometres away from the reactor. You can't clean all this up. We still have radioactive wild boar in Germany, 30 years after Chernobyl."
Radiation detected in Massachusetts rainwater as Fukushima crisis worsens From The Jackz and Alexander Higgins. Excerpts:
The Fukushima crisis continues to worsen by the day, with nuclear experts around the world finally realizing and admitting we’ve all been lied to. “I think maybe the situation is much more serious than we were led to believe,” said Najmedin Meshkati of the University of Southern California, in a Reuters report (http://www.reuters.com/article/2011…). That same article revealed that recent radiation readings at Fukushima show “contamination 100,000 times normal in water at reactor No. 2 and 1,850 times normal in the nearby sea.”
Massachusetts rainwater has also been found to be contaminated with low levels of radiation from Fukushima, indicating just how widespread the radioactive fallout has become. It’s not just the West Coast of North America that’s vulnerable, in other words: even the East Coast could receive dangerous levels of fallout if Fukushima suffers a larger release of radioactive material into the air.
Japan: Tepco to build sarcophagus over Fukushima reactor The Telegraph via Rense. Excerpts:
The operator of the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has announced plans to construct a shroud over one of the reactor buildings, a stop-gap measure until a more permanent solution can be found, such as entombing the facility in concrete.
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Tokyo Electric Power Co. will start the construction of a rigid steel frame over the No. 1 reactor on June 27, Yoshikazu Nagai, a spokesman for the company, said.
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The frame, which is being put together off-site, will support polyester fibre panels that have been coated with a resin designed to prevent further radiation leaking into the atmosphere.
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Eventually, Tepco plans to erect a concrete structure around the reactors, although it admits that will take several years to achieve.
From The Guardian UK via Rense. Excerpts:
An uncontrolled debt default by Athens is suddenly starting to seem a horrible possibility.
..
A unity administration in Athens might allow bailout talks to resume, but by then investors might have zero faith that the next package of loans could succeed where the last one failed. More austerity, even if the Greeks could be coerced into accepting more pay cuts and more state sell-offs, might simply damage the economy further.
Default, then, seems to be looming one way or another. The best policy would be to try control the damage by ensuring the impact of the rest of the eurozone banking system is as soft as possible. That assumes, of course, that damage-control is still an option. The point of no return is fast approaching.
Greenspan Tells Charlie Rose Default by Greece 'Almost Certain'
Alan Greenspan, former Federal Reserve chairman, said a default by Greece is "almost certain" and could help drive the U.S. economy into recession.
"The problem you have is that it's extremely unlikely the political system will work" in a way that solves Greece's crisis, Greenspan, 85, said in an interview today with Charlie Rose in New York. "The chances of Greece not defaulting are very small."
Journalist:"It Is A War In Greece" Video from Russia Today via Before It's News/ Watch this.
Greece riots: RT film crew get caught in Athens street protests More from Russia Today via Metro/UK
This is barely The Beginning. It's going to be a long, hot summer.
The next time some revisionist dumbass talks about the "moral purity" and high standards of "The Good Old Days," or "When I was a kid..," slap them off their high horse with this memo from 1898 regarding baseball's on-field code of conduct. If your eyes bleed easily, stop right here. If you find original and unique swearing hilarious, buckle up! You're in for a filthy, filthy treat. Enjoy!
Fukushima In Apocalyptic Spiral Downward From Before It's News. Excerpts:
Fukushima may be in an apocalyptic downward spiral.
Forget the corporate-induced media coma that says otherwise ... or nothing at all.
Lethal radiation is spewing unabated. Emission levels could seriously escalate. There is no end in
sight. The potential is many times worse than Chernobyl.
Containing this disaster may be beyond the abilities of Tokyo Electric or the Japanese government.
There is no reason to incur further unnecessary risk. With all needed resources, it's time for the world's best scientists and engineers to take charge.
Even then the outcome is unclear.
For a brief but terrifying overview, consult Dr. Chris Busby as interviewed by RT/TV
David McNeill: Who's telling the truth on the Fukushima meltdown? CNN via Rense. Excerpts:
A string of autopsies -- political, regulatory and technological -- loom over the corpse of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The media, however, has already begun its self-examination and it’s not a pretty picture.
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One of the more striking aspects of the local media coverage of Fukushima was the missing word -- “meltdown.” It seemed reasonable to speculate, from March 11-15, that this is precisely what happened.
One reason was the repeated news of cesium dispersed in the atmosphere on March 12.
Haruki Madarame, the Chair of the Nuclear Safety Commission now says he concluded very early on that meltdown had happened, and informed the government. Former Washington TBS Bureau Chief Toyohiro Akiyama, who has a farm in Fukushima, made a similar assessment and fled in his car to Gunma.
“There was a blackout in the media of the word,” he says in an interview this month with the Foreign Correspondents’ Club magazine, “No.1 Shimbun.” In April the head of the Atomic Energy Society of Japan, Takashi Sawada, also said that fuel rods in reactors 1 and 3 had melted. Yet, it took over two months for newspapers and TV here to begin using the word. Why?
Japan’s press club system means the big newspapers and TV companies channel and amplify information directly from the government, TEPCO and The Nuclear Industrial Safety Agency. That meant they were admirably disciplined, descriptive, somber and focused on the facts.
They were also discouraged from speculating on what might be going on inside the stricken plant, although many reporters must have privately concluded the worst.
Some will argue that Japanese reporters had a heavy responsibility to avoid creating panic in the world’s most populated metropolis. Twenty-eight million people rushing for the highways, airports and train stations might have caused more deaths than radiation.
But does this responsibility mean simply not exaggerating, or does it also include concealing or delaying information or even outright deception?
As the Nuclear Safety Agency warned on March 12 that metal containers of uranium fuel inside Reactor 1 had probably started melting, University of Tokyo Professor Naoto Sekimura repeatedly popped up on TV to wave away our concerns.
“Only a small part of the fuel may have melted and leaked outside,” he said. Residents near the power station should “stay calm,” because “most of the fuel remains inside the reactor, which has stopped operating and is being cooled.”
How could Professor Sekimura have possibly known what he was saying, and shouldn’t that broadcaster have balanced his (clearly wrong) assessment with an opposite view. Or was that risking panic?
Readers will have to ask themselves how they feel about being kept in the dark “for their own good.”
Dr Iven Mareels - "Engineers Likely Understood Containment Breached Immediately" - "Why is Spent Fuel Still In Reactor 4 SFP?" From Before It's News
Over thirty-five years ago, three engineers working at General Electric resigned from their positions after reviewing the designs for the Mark 1 Reactor, and realizing it was so flawed that disaster was sure to follow. Five of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant are GE Mark 1s.
In an interview with ABC News, Dale Bridenbaugh, one of the GE engineers who resigned talked about the Mark 1 design. “The problems we identified in 1975 were that, in doing the design of the containment, they did not take into account the dynamic loads that could be experienced with a loss of coolant. The impact loads the containment would receive by this very rapid release of energy could tear the containment apart and create an uncontrolled release.”
Footage of Fukushima No.3 reactor released Video from NHK, via Rense.
Tokyo Electric Power Company has released video footage taken last week of Number 3 reactor at its crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
The video shows workers wearing protective suits enter the building through a cargo entrance. The roof of the facility was missing with the sky in view because of a hydrogen explosion on March 14th.
From Gawker:
John Ziegler, a talk-radio host and filmmaker whose zeal in defending Sarah Palin's every move and utterance over the past two years zoomed past advocacy and into creepiness has now done what all stalkers do eventually: He's decided if he can't have her, no one can.
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..he's decided she can't be president and has written a lengthy tell-all-ish (tell some?) story in the Daily Caller arguing that she's going to destroy the Republican Party if she runs—which, he says, she will—and is surrounded by yes-men. He's also launched a site called "The Sarah Palin I Know" as a future vehicle for damaging information about her. Ziegler is the second high-profile denizen of Palinland to defect: Earlier this year long-time aide Frank Bailey wrote a tell-all based on thousands of e-mails with Palin that he'd kept.
Bailey's turnaround was instructive in the sense that an insider became disillusioned with Palin as he came to know more about her. Ziegler's is instructive in the sense that any time you see someone on television defending Palin, keep in mind that they're probably an attention-starved opportunist who just wants to feel important and will probably say whatever you want as long as you keep listening. Also that Sarah Palin surrounds herself with horrible people, because she is one.
Hot Particles From Japan to Seattle Virtually Undetectable when Inhaled or Swallowed Fairewinds via Rense. Video at link.
Original estimates of xenon and krypton releases remain the same, but a TEPCO recalculation shows dramatic increases in the release of hot particles. This confirms the results of air filter monitoring by independent scientists. Fairewinds' Arnie Gundersen explains how hot particles may react in mammals while escaping traditional detection. Reports of a metallic taste in the mouth, such as those now being reported in Japan and on the west coast, are a telltale sign of radiation exposure.
This is not limited to Japan or the West Coast. It started here in Missouri on March 22. It was still cold, or cooler, and almost no one else was outdoors, outside. I was jogging three to five times a week, and March 22nd was the first day I remember tasting the metallic.. edge to the air. This taste lingered in the air until mid April, and has happened infrequently since. Between the running and the yard work, I have tasted metallic for quite a few days. I got a little freaked out when I became aware of the taste, but then I figured I was over-reacting.
This is a little disconcerting.
TEPCO reprimanded over 2 workers' high radiation
Japan’s nuclear safety officials reprimanded the operator of Japan’s tsunami-damaged power plant Friday and demanded an investigation of how two workers were exposed to radiation more than twice a government-set limit.
The government also ordered the utility to reduce workers’ risks of heat-related illnesses as concerns grow about the health risks faced by the people toiling to get the Fukushima Daiichi plant under control.
'Fukushima media cover-up - PR success, public health disaster' Video from Russia Today via You Tube.
TEPCO releases photo showing damage to No. 4 reactor building Mainichi Daily News via Rense.
Earlier the company had released footage showing work to remotely measure the temperature of the pool for spent fuel at the No. 4 reactor, but the latest photo marks the first time since the March 11 earthquake and tsunami for the company to release a picture showing the inside of the reactor building.
The No. 4 reactor was hit by a hydrogen explosion on March 15, as well as fires on two occasions. The generator in the structure was used for a reactor recirculation pump and is thought to be the source of the fires.
Link includes "It's just a little COMPLETELY DESTROYED! It's still good! It's still good!" Picture.
Japanese back nuke free future - poll
ALMOST three-quarters of Japanese respondents to a newspaper poll favour a gradual phase-out of nuclear energy in the wake of the Fukushima atomic accident.
The Asahi Shimbun daily said in its weekend opinion poll that only 14 per cent were against such a gradual reduction.
The poll also showed 64 per cent of respondents believed "natural energy" such as wind and solar power would replace nuclear power in the future, while 24 percent said they did not think so.
Powerful earthquakes rock Christchurch From Stuff. Excerpts:
GNS Science is warning of more aftershocks in coming days as thousands of people face a night without power after magnitude 6.0 and 5.5 earthquakes rocked Christchurch.
The magnitude 5.5 quake struck at 1pm, 10 kilometres east of Christchurch at Taylor's Mistake beach, at a depth of 11 kilometres, and sent people scrambling for cover. It was followed at 2.20pm by a more powerful magnitude 6 quake, centred 10 kilometres southeast of the city and 9km underground. (Really shallow, so the shaking is more severe..)
At least 46 people were injured in the earthquakes today Radio New Zealand reported. At least ten people were taken to Christchurch Hospital with injuries due to falling building material after the 1pm quake.
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The quakes are the latest in a series of dozens of aftershocks to hit Canterbury following the devastating February 22 earthquake, where 182 people died, and a damaging magnitude 7.1 earthquake last September. The February 22 quake measured magnitude 6.3 and left 100,000 homes damaged - 10,000 beyond repair.
Christchurch's CBD was left in ruins, with 900 buildings - many in what has become known as the 'red zone' - expected to be demolished.
Some pretty good background information here.
Fukushima I Nuke Plant Reactor 3 Gamma Camera Photos Ex-SKF via Rense.
Japan’s Radiation Sleuths Toil With Borrowed Geiger Counters Bloomberg. Excerpts:
.More than three months after the biggest earthquake in Japan’s history and a 15-meter (40-foot) tsunami wrecked the Fukushima atomic power station, a picture emerges of ad-hoc responses to the crisis. In the days after the worst atomic disaster since Chernobyl, Tokyo Electric Power Co. was using fire hoses and makeshift pumps to try and cool the crippled reactors.
Tokyo Grows Green Curtains to Save Power CNBC. Excerpts:
The odd looking goya has long been a popular ingredient in Japanese cuisine, but Tokyoites are now growing the courgette-shaped bitter melon for reasons of energy conservation, not food.
Skylark, a restaurant chain, is cultivating the goya to create “green curtains” outside the windows of several hundred of its Tokyo eateries. The plants, it says, should form a natural shade to cool the interiors, reducing its reliance on air conditioners.
The government has called on companies and households in eastern Japan to reduce electricity consumption by 15 per cent this summer, as Tokyo Electric Power struggles to contain the nuclear crisis at its Fukushima power plant. Kansai Electric is also urging customers in western Japan to cut their electricity consumption by the same amount amid concerns that its nuclear plants might face delays in receiving approval to restart. (They will..)
Facts About Japan's Tsunami that You May Not Know Associated Content.
Just two of several bullet points..
* If the power from the earthquake could have been made into usable energy, it would be able to power a city the size of Los Angeles for an entire year.
* It is believed that the tsunami wave that hit the shore of Japan was 77.4 feet high in one place.
From Washington's Blog. Read his site. Here's the rundown and your three cheery options..
AP noted on Wednesday:
The Plaquemines Parish president, Billy Nungesser, says oil has been spotted in the waters off the coast near Venice and that he believes the seven-mile slick is from last year’s BP spill [and] there have been no recent reports to the Coast Guard of spilled oil in the area.
Is this:
1. A new leak, the source of which hasn't been discovered
2. Old BP oil being churned up from the bottom of the ocean
or
3. A sign that the BP well has started leaking again?
Time will tell.
Just in time for 2011's potentially intense hurricane season. Exciting! Always wear your seat belts, people (and Space Monsters). Always.
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