Vin Crosbie's Personal Blog

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Esoterica

Lack of Enforcement is the Real Problem With Nuclear Power

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Most of the world’s most controversial subjects tend to polarize people’s opinions: people not only disagree about the subject, but do so by being either completely for or against the subject. Generating electricity from nuclear power is one of these subjects. Too bad, because it’s people’s polarization itself that prevents a solution. Yes, nuclear power is environmentally clean and therefore nuclear power should be used. Yes, nuclear accidents will happen and therefore nuclear power shouldn’t be used. However, the reality of the subject isn’t at all that polar. Among the people who know that is the board of editors of Scientific American magazine. They include people who not only understand both sides of the issues, but realize that the ultimate problem about nuclear power generation isn’t nuclear power but the cases of duplicity, corruption, and incompetence about it. Here is their editorial about it, which appeared in the June issue of their magazine. I applauded the editorial when I first read it earlier this summer:  “…If we gave it up, what would replace it? Pollution from fossil-fueled power plants shortens the life span of as many as 30,000 Americans a year. Coal companies lop off mountaintops, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas threatens water supplies, and oil dependence undermines the nation’s energy security. Then there is the small matter of greenhouse gas emissions. Clean renewable technologies will take years to reach the scale needed to replace the power we get from splitting atoms…. “…The industry and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) claim that nuclear power is safe, but their lack of transparency does not inspire confidence. For example, an Associated Press investigation in March revealed 24 cases from December 2009 to September 2010 in which plant operators did not report equipment defects to the NRC…. “…The trouble is that regulations are not being enforced rigorously. The NRC has to mete out stiff penalties for violations and make every action transparent to us all…. “…If exercises showed that residents around a plant could not leave quickly enough, the NRC should consider shutting it down. A good test case is the Indian Point plant 38 miles north of New York City. Evacuating the 20 million people who live within 50 miles staggers belief…. “…If an operator proposes a site that is too close to an earthquake fault, or too close to oceanfront that is vulnerable to a tsunami or hurricane storm surge, or downriver from a huge […]

A Prospectus for Tea Party Land

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I’m thinking of raising capital for a new venture—Tea Party Land. This amusement park located in Middle America will have little or no government, ban admission to immigrants, and comprise Hannity Town, Old Testament Ingrahamstan , Beck Fantasyland, Coultershire, and O’Reillytopia. All its streets will lead to Fox Castle where every hour on the hour Princess Palin appears from a balcony. Tea Party Land will be the first family amusement park to feature rides engineered according to Creation Science and Supply-Side Economics: such as the Holy Rollercoaster down the mighty Limbaughorn, the Trickledown Waterslide (is your mortgage underwater?), and It’s A Cool Cool Cooling World. What other rides, cuisines, and features should we include? (Photograph, Tea Cup Ride on High Street, Solihull, courtesy of Ell Brown on Flickr.)

An Old Chestnut: The Original Trailer for ‘Star Wars’

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Here’s an old chestnut: the original Star Wars trailer exhibited six months before the film’s release. It’s a collection of seemingly random clips—probably because much of the unfinished movie has yet to be filmed—when the movie studio wasn’t sure what the film was about or if the film would bomb or hit. The trailer also lacks the firms musical score. Note the voiceover’s unintentionally tentative tone!

Climbing, Kayaking, and Biking a Swiss Border Circumnavigation

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When I was growing up, I was a big fan of the mountaineer John Harlin II, who tragically was killed when a falling rock severed the rope he was hanging from during the first directissima ascent of the Eiger‘s legendary North Face, a climbing route that’s subsequently became known as the Harlin Route. So, I was pleased to see his son John Harlin III, who was age nine when his father died but nowadays also is a mountaineer and the editor-in-chief of the American Alpine Club‘s American Alpine Journal, and who is now my age, is endeavoring to circumnavigate Switzerland by traveling entirely along that country’s borders. If that doesn’t sound hard, understand that: Switzerland’s southern border contains the summits of some of the Alps most notorious and highest peaks—including the Matterhorn and Monte Rosa, the second highest mountain in the Alps. Harlin will have to climb those peaks. The northeast quarter of Switzerland’s border includes the Rhine, which that far upstream includes the Rheinfall, Europe’s version of Niagara Falls. Harlin will have to kayak down that river. The rest of Switzerland’s borders include several hundred kilometers of meandering hills and escarpments that Harlin will have to mountain bike. All of that is a formidable endeavor for any athlete or outdoorsman.  Indeed, Harlin fell while climbing the alpine Franco-Swiss border on the tenth day of his journey, broke a rib and five bones in his feet, and had to suspend his endeavor. He’s now resumed his journey, but this time is starting at the headwaters of the Rhine and by tomorrow should reach Basel, completing the Rhine river portion of his journey. Swissinfo.ch, the website of Swiss Radio International, is sponsoring the journey, and you can read Harlin’s daily trip blog there.

Cebu Pacific Airlines Flight Attendants Dance The Safety Instructions

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Prior to World War II, airline flight attendants were required to be registered nurses. How the qualifications for that jobs has changed! Here is a recent (yesterday) video a passenger shot aboard a Cebu Pacific Airlines flight on which flight attendants danced their recitation of the airline’s Airbus safety instructions. No surprisingly, six months ago Cebu Pacific, a discount airline based in Manila, was banned from flying to European Union countries. EU officials decided that the airline’s safety and aircraft maintenance practices weren’t safe enough. The EU also banned most other airlines based in the Philippines.