Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Radiation, Best Links to Understand It

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http://www.kallus.com/er/resident/julycourse/handouts/radiation.pdf

This is a complete quicky course for medical residents, and pulls no punches with the actual photos of radiation damage to the human body photos, towards the end of the Powerpoint presentation. Explains the terms for radiation dosages, and forms of damage to the body, well.

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http://io9.com/#!5782367/how-does-radiation-travel-and-what-kinds-of-damage-can-it-do

This is more of a physicist's/engineer's view of the stuff, but also covers medical issues.

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http://www.landauer.com/japan_crisis_update.aspx?gclid=CJ_OkMPP96cCFRlPgwoda31rrQ

A commercial site fir dose meters, has yet more links.

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http://www.nuc.berkeley.edu/ucbairsampling

Air and water samplings from UC Berkeley's nuke Science Dept.

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http://health.phys.iit.edu/archives/2010-November/029858.html

Shows no connection between increased background radiation and cancer.

Maxiumum Efficency Solar + Jobs & Shelter 4 Homeless

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Solar panels work best when carefully re-aimed at the sun all day long. Making electro-mechanical systems to do this, and keeping them operating, is expensive.

If the panels are built with simple hand cranked adjustments, and the area under them is tall enough to stand in, and is provided with good tarps to run rain off of a substantial portion, then homeless people could do the cranking, and have a relatively warm and dry space to stay on.

They could also be trained to occasionally clean the panels. Each bank could have a wireless monitoring device to display power output, and the homeless person who maintains the highest power output for each hour would get a bonus. Everyone would get paid something, and there could be community showers (solar heated) and toilets and washing machines, common internet terminals and sat dish tv, plus public transit to nearby areas of employment.

You can laugh about this now, but if the economy continues to produce unemployment at current rates, this may be important, as the concentration of wealth in the USA continues, unabated.

Friday, March 25, 2011

Who's Afraid of the BIG BAD teeny weeny Radioactive Particle?

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Did you know that the amount of force in Muhammad Ali's punch is far less than what is applied to your body as you take off in a jet aircraft?



Did you know that the amount of radiation in a tiny airborn particle is far less that what you get with one transAtlantic flight.



In both cases, the delivery of the former has far graver results, and the whole damn media world seems to be willing to jump on the group lie and ride it for all it's worth, in the second instance.



Whose afraid of the Big Bad teeny weeny microscopic radioactive particle.



well, I am, for one.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

George Rebane Wants to Shut Down All Nuke Plants Now!

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I double dog dare you to leave this link up:

http://io9.com/#!5782367/how-does-radiation-travel-and-what-kinds-of-damage-can-it-do

Would you deny the possibility that seawater dumped on the Japanese reactors has already created tons of particles which are now traveling around the globe, looking for one special spot in your body to lodge? And that one tiny particle of radioactive material, sitting in one spot in your body, can cause cancers in the nearby cells, because they are hit repeatedly?

Why did the Carrier Ronald Reagan, stationed 100 miles away from the reactors, up and move further away, several days back? Is her skipper in a better position than the average bear to know what is going on there? How come US counselor personnel and their families are being evacuated AHEAD of regular US citizens? Come on, George, admit it, this is way out of control, and no we don't need to shut down all nukes everywhere over night, that's silly, and not worthy of the mind I thought you had.

Posted at his site, doubt that it will last.

US Counselor Personnel Are Leaving First ??? How Insulting!

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Not enough proof for you that everybody upstairs is lying to us "little people?"

Then how come the FIRST to leave Japan will be all the US Counselor folks, who ought to be the last, if we are not to insult Japan even further.

Insult? Well, it is true the Japanese engineers had 40 years to contemplate the placement of the backup systems, but so did the GE engineers WHO SOLD THE SYSTEM to Japan. Does Japan have a case in the World Court against certainly GE? Does Japan desperately need our help right now to fix things? There must be incredible smoldering resentment going on over there, hidden by the need for help.

Other hint that the Big Boys are hiding the truth?

The canary in my own coal mine was when the mightiest aircraft carrier we’ve got, one full of radiation detection gear, and the planes to fly over the reactors, the Ronald Reagan, then 100 miles offshore a couple of days ago, moved further away.

Jerry Brown should be holding very open and clear hearings about the placement of backup systems in our California reactors. It was news to me to learn that “spent fuel” actually needs cooling as much as the active reactor, and that the rods are stored at the sites, for years.

I have no doubt that somewhere, both Japanese and American engineers who foresaw these dangers, and who were ignored, are shaking their heads and wondering what further they could have done. No shame for them, the could see the possibilities, and did their best to warn, and were ignored.

Best site yet that explains the differences between ways of getting killed by radiation. http://io9.com/#!5782367/how-does-radiation-travel-and-what-kinds-of-damage-can-it-do

We will never be affected by the ionizing radiation at the plant, which can literally cook your body on the spot, but we can be affected by particles of radioactive debris, knocked loose from the fuel rods, or created when the sea water (every element known to man in seawater) was sprayed on them. Tiny, tiny, tiny, and easily capable of going airborne, just one of these particles inhaled or absorbed through the skin, can kill you over time, time much shorter than your allotted time, and in a very painful way.

Lodged at one point in your body, this radioactive particle will not show as anything more powerful than background radiation does, BUT

Because it does not move around, and randomly zap different cells in different parts of your body, but instead concentrates on just the cells next to it, the damage is cumulative.

The cells next to the radioactive particle have their DNA and RNA shot to hell, and those cells eventually stop functioning, or worse yet, mutate to cancerous cells, and you die.

Seems to me we need to melt down and incase the waste in the nearest subsea continental subduction zone, and add that cost to the "cost of nuclear power." dumping the spent rods into the nearest volcano just won't work. Jerry Brown can add additional research into the old Farallones radioactive dumping grounds to his list of things to be concerned about.

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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Geiger Counter Readings are Worthless for Internal Body Particles

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Took care of potassium iodine three days ago, Centrum has a 100% dose. Steven Chu, Nobel prize winning Energy Secretary was up to 2:30 am as well. I was ordering face masks.

The idiots on CNN are discussing why radiation is "not so bad."

They totally miss the difference between background radiation, and the radiation from one small particle, lodged at one spot in your lungs. A few random hits hither and yon, no problem from backkground radiation. Millions of hits on a few cells next to a particle directly affects their DNA and RNA and causes mutations, AKA cancers.

Background radiation and that particle may have the exact same readings on a Geiger counter, but the particle can kill you, because it keeps working away on the cells right next to it.

Nukes, nukes, gotta have my nukes....

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My response to someone who wants to build nukes, regardless of the dangers, foreseen and unforeseen.

"So, asking for a power grid not to have the potential to contribute to world wide cancers and death via radiation poisoning is irresponsible?

You want to jump of a 100 story building and then claim it was inevitable as you go splat, that's your business. just don't expect me to jump with you. Go get your own darned planet, if you "gotta have nukes.' You some kind of drug addict or something?

"Nukes nukes, gotta have nukes! Where's my daily fix of nukes?"

Monday, March 14, 2011

Watt's Up, Doc?

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Watts Up, doc?

We had no problem building Liberty Ships and B-24s and taking the backboard scribbling forward to the first nuke bombs, what holding up the show now? Put people to work, at 1/2 minimum wage, and build the panels, giving one to each worker per day, and they get to sell them to the highest bidders. a really wild and interesting market, just like any other. Or, they can take them home. The government supplies the materials and the tools.

All the rest go to power all the governments, state and local. That will keep us busy and productive for quite a while.

Background Radiation vs Small Radioactive Particle in your Body

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There is a huge difference between background radiation zinging through a random molecule at random places in your body, and a radioactive particle permanently lodged in one place in your body, repeatedly zapping away, over and over again, at nearby DNA and RNA chains, until they mutate into cancer cells.

But, they both give the same geigercounter readings, it's just that one relentlessly kills you as fast as it can, while the other, background radiation, is relatively harmless.

I haven't figured out the trick for smooth posting of links, so cut and paste this for a really good review of how the Japan plants we built and work.

http://modernsurvivalblog.com/nuclear/west-coast-usa-danger-if-japan-nuclear-reactor-meltdown/

Please Prioritize Your Ducks Correctly, President Obama

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Nuke Decommissioning, Solar Panel Production, Japan, Wisconsin, Libya, THEN school bullying. You need to get your ducks properly prioritized. Too damn bad the trans-Atlantic ocean liner the SS United States hasn't been recommissioned as a roving ambassador/emergency hospital ship. She'd be steaming into Tokyo Bay today, crossing the Pacific from San Francisco in less than six days.

You can see more details at the Facebook groups:

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=438628365506

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=438628365506



Did you know the Japanese plant had been scheduled to be decommissioned in February of this year, but then they got a ten year extension? Somewhere inside of Tokyo Electric and the Japanese government, heads are rolling....

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Minimalist Shelters for the Homeless/Displaced by Disasters

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We need minimal shelter from rain and wind, using Japanese mini hotel bee hexagon model, made from sturdy plastics, tin roof top over a whole bank of them, stacked two high, multiple access levels.

The hexagon would be roughly 8 feet long, two feet on each side. The material would be extruded recycled plastic, probably about 1/4 inch thick. I am not a materials engineer, but I suspect that this would work. Using a framework of wood to support these off the ground and separating each layer, you could easily go up four to six layers, with access at every two layers. A solid tin roof, 20 by 20, could cover, at six hexagons deep, 3×4, 3×4, 3×4, times entry from both sides for 2nd bank, 21 on a side, 42 sleeping spaces. Simple vinal curtains, recycled sign material from convention signage, would keep the rain out of the openings to the hexapods.

Cost, probably well under $20,000 per structure. It’s not a house, but it does prevent people from freezing to death. Body heat would probably raise interior temps a few degrees. Being dry, you can take a lot more cold. During the day, hexapods can be pressure washed if needed.

To avoid the NIMBY problem, you could put a single bank of these on a semitrailer, and move it from place to place, with portypotty in tow. Daytime airports have lots of flat spaces at night. Having separate trailer banks for men and for women and children would be good. Pets would be possible.

thank-you, Bucky Fuller!

Douglas Keachie