“I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant.” – H.L. Mencken
H.L. Mencken was a renowned newspaper columnist for the Baltimore Sun from 1906 until 1948. His biting sarcasm seems to fit perfectly in today’s world. His acerbic satirical writings on government, democracy, politicians and the ignorant masses are as true today as they were then. I believe the reason his words hit home is because he was writing during the last Unraveling and Crisis periods in America. The similarities cannot be denied. There are no journalists of his stature working in the mainstream media today. His acerbic wit is nowhere to be found among the lightweight shills that parrot their corporate masters’ propaganda on a daily basis and unquestioningly report the fabrications spewed by our government. Mencken’s skepticism of all institutions is an unknown quality in the vapid world of present day journalism.
The Roaring Twenties of decadence, financial crisis caused by loose Fed monetary policies, stock market crash, Depression, colossal government redistribution of wealth, and ultimately a World War, all occurred during his prime writing years. I know people want to believe that the world only progresses, but they are wrong. The cycles of history reveal that people do not change, just the circumstances change. How Americans react to the undulations of history depends upon their age and generational position. We are currently in a Crisis period when practical, truth telling realists like Mencken are most useful and necessary.
Mencken captured the essence of American politics and a disconnected populace 80 years ago. Even though many people today feel the average American is less intelligent, more materialistic, and less informed than ever before, it was just as true in 1930 based on Mencken’s assessment:
“The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
You can make your own judgment on the accuracy of his statement considering the last two gentlemen to occupy the White House. His appraisal of U.S. Senators and citizens in our so-called Democracy captures the spirit of the travesty that passes for leadership and civic responsibility in this country today.
“Democracy gives the beatification of mediocrity a certain appearance of objective and demonstrable truth. The mob man, functioning as citizen, gets a feeling that he is really important to the world—that he is genuinely running things. Out of his maudlin herding after rogues and mountebacks there comes to him a sense of vast and mysterious power—which is what makes archbishops, police sergeants, the grand goblins of the Ku Klux and other such magnificoes happy. And out of it there comes, too, a conviction that he is somehow wise, that his views are taken seriously by his betters — which is what makes United States Senators, fortune tellers and Young Intellectuals happy. Finally, there comes out of it a glowing consciousness of a high duty triumphantly done which is what makes hangmen and husbands happy.”
People still read newspapers in the 1930s to acquire credible information about the economy, politics and economy. Today’s corporate owned rags aren’t fit to line a bird cage. The mainstream media is a platform for the lies of their corporate sponsors. Each TV network or newspaper spouts propaganda that supports the financial interests and ideology they are beholden to. Does anyone think they are obtaining the truth from Paul Krugman, Chris Matthews, Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh? Evidently the answer is yes. The upcoming presidential campaign will be a nightmare of endless negative advertisements created by Madison Avenue maggots and paid for by rich powerful men attempting to herd the mindless sheeple towards their ultimate slaughter. Whichever corporate controlled party can more successfully scare the masses into pulling their lever in the voting booth on November 6th will get the opportunity push the country closer to its ultimate collapse. This collapse was destined from the time of Mencken when the Federal Reserve was created by a small group of powerful bankers and their cronies in Congress. Fear has worked for 100 years in controlling the masses, as Mencken noted during his time:
“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”
In the 1930s you needed to count on newspapers for the truth. The purpose of those who wield power is to keep the masses dumbed down and paranoid regarding terrorist threats and artificial enemies. By convincing the dense public that acquiring material goods on credit was a smart thing to do, they have trapped them in a web of debt. By making life an inexhaustible bureaucratic nightmare or rules, regulations, forms, ID cards, registrations, and red tape, those in power maintain control and accumulate power. H.L. Mencken would be proud:
“Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. No one in this world has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.”
Let’s See How Far We’ve Come
“The worst government is often the most moral. One composed of cynics is often very tolerant and humane. But when fanatics are on top there is no limit to oppression.” – H.L. Mencken
The corporate / government / banking oligarchy started the fire. The world is burning to the ground and politicians have thrown gasoline onto the fire with passage of debt financed stimulus programs, Obamacare, bank bailouts, the Patriot Act, NDAA, and a myriad of other government “solutions”. To anyone willing to think for just a few minutes, the picture is unambiguous. This requires the ability to think critically – a missing gene among the majority of Americans.
Critical thinking is the careful, deliberate determination of whether one should accept, reject, or suspend judgment about a claim and the degree of confidence with which one accepts or rejects it. Critical thinking employs not only logic but broad intellectual criteria such as clarity, credibility, accuracy, precision, relevance, depth, breadth, significance and fairness. Critical thinking requires extensive experience in identifying the extent of one’s own ignorance in a wide variety of subjects (“I thought I knew, but I merely believed.”)
One becomes less biased and more broad-minded when one becomes more intellectually empathetic and intellectually humble. I have observed little or no critical thinking skills in the pompous asses that write daily columns in today’s newspapers and zero critical thinking skills among the vacuous pundits and big breasted brainless fashion models that yap all day long on CNBC, MSNBC, CNN, Fox and the Big 3 dying networks.
Any thinking would be a shocking change of pace from the corrupt corporate owned politicians in Washington DC. Other than Ron Paul and a few other truth tellers, critical thinking from a politician or a government bureaucrat is about as likely as Obama not using a teleprompter. Everything being spewed at the public from the MSM, Wall Street, and Washington DC is intellectually dishonest, manipulated and packaged by pollsters and PR firms. I’ve come to the conclusion that those in power desire that public school systems of the United States churn out ignorant, non-questioning morons. A populace that is incapable or uninterested in critically thinking about the important issues of the day is a politician’s best friend. Half the population doesn’t vote and the other half unquestioningly obeys what they are told by their parties.
Ignorance is the state of being uninformed about issues and unaware about the implications of those issues. It is not about intelligence. A huge swath of America is ignorant due to lack of education and a low class upbringing. But, I know many college educated people who haven’t read a book in 20 years or could care less about economic issues. They made a choice to be ignorant. They prefer being distracted by their latest technological toy to dealing with reality.
Most Americans are incapable of looking beyond a 2 to 3 year time horizon. That is why the median 401k balance in the US is $13,000. That is why the average credit card debt per household is $16,000. That is why 25% of all homeowners are underwater on their mortgage. Politicians, banks, and marketers take advantage of this witlessness to enslave the average American. We’ve come to love our slavery. Appearing successful because you drive the right car, wear the right clothes or live in the right house is more important than actually doing the hard work to actually become successful, like spending less than you make and saving the difference.
An informed, interested, questioning public would be a danger to the government as described by H.L. Mencken:
“The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out … without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.”
There were already two fiscal hurricanes of unfunded liabilities and current deficits churning towards our shores before Obama and his non-critical thinking Democratic minions launched a third storm called Obamacare. No matter how many intellectually deceitful mouthpieces like Paul Krugman and Rush Limbaugh misrepresent the facts, the fiscal foundation of the country is crumbling under the weight of unfunded entitlement promises, out of control government spending and far flung military misadventures. Only someone who is intellectually bankrupt, like Krugman, would declare the National Debt at $8 trillion as a looming disaster when George Bush was President, but declare that a $15.6 trillion National Debt headed towards $20 trillion by 2015 isn’t a danger now that Barack Obama is President. The intellectual and moral credentials required to write for a major newspaper have fallen markedly since the days of Mencken.
The combination of educationally uninformed, ignorant by choice, and intellectually dishonest will be fatal for the country. Total US credit market debt as a percentage of GDP is just below an all-time high, exceeding 350% of GDP. It is 25% higher than it was at the depths of the Great Depression. Consumer debt fell in 2010 – 2011 because banks wrote off about a trillion dollars of bad debt, while government debt has skyrocketed to unprecedented levels. Now consumers are back racking up more debt, with government encouragement and subsidies responsible for the surge in student loan and auto debt. With GDP stalling out, government debt accumulating at $1.4 trillion per year and consumers back to their delusional selves again, this ratio will pass 400% by 2014.
The financial crisis was caused by excessive utilization of debt. In order to correct these imbalances, the country needed to undergo a deleveraging and reversion back to a country of savers. Savings equals investment. Instead, our “leaders” have reduced interest rates to 0% and have gone on an unprecedented government borrowing and spending spree. Savers and senior citizens are punished, while gamblers and speculators are rewarded. Anyone who thinks about this strategy for a few minutes will realize it is asinine and hopeless. It enriches the few and impoverishes the many.
Based upon a realistic assessment of our current spending trajectory, The National Debt of the U.S. will exceed $25 trillion by 2019. That is more than double the figure when Bush left office. George Bush almost doubled the National Debt from $5.6 trillion to $11 trillion during his reign of error. It seems one thing Republicans and Democrats can agree on is that spending money they don’t have will have no negative consequences (“deficits don’t matter” – Cheney). When you have a Federal Reserve willing to print to infinity there is no limit to how much you can spend. Only a fool would believe there won’t be consequences. That fool writes an opinion column for the NYT and has a Nobel Prize on his bookshelf.
We add $3.8 billion of debt to this figure each and every day. We add $158 million to this figure each and every hour. The interest on the National Debt reached an all-time high of $454 billion in 2011 with an effective interest rate of about 3%. Much of this interest is paid to foreign governments like China, Japan and OPEC nations. This is $1.2 billion per day of interest paid mostly to foreigners. With just the slightest bit of critical thinking one could easily perceive that with a National Debt of $25 trillion and a likely increase in interest rates to at least 6%, our annual interest costs would increase to $1.5 trillion per year. The United States needed to implement a long-term plan ten years ago to address the impossible to fulfill promises made by its corrupt, mentally bankrupt politicians. Americans’ inability to deal with reality and fondness for not thinking beyond tomorrow has shown them to be an inferior species, as Mencken noted:
“The one permanent emotion of the inferior man is fear – fear of the unknown, the complex, the inexplicable. What he wants above everything else is safety.”
The entire revenue of the US government totaled $2.3 trillion in 2011, with $800 billion of those funds earmarked for Social Security outlays in the future. Does this appear sustainable? President Obama submits budgets of never ending trillion dollar deficits and then gives stump speeches declaring that we must get our deficits under control. He appears on the MSM declaring his dedication to fiscal responsibility and what passes for a journalist these days nods their head like a lapdog and lobs the next softball to the President. You have to be delusional to believe this claptrap. Luckily for the politicians, most Americans are delusional and apathetic. They just got another text message from their BFF. They are consumed by who will get booted this week from American Idol or Dancing With the Stars. The NFL draft is tonight and did your hear that Kim Kardashian is doing Kanye West?
H.L. Mencken understood the false promises of democracy 80 years ago:
“Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. It is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
We deserve to get it good and hard, and we will.
Except to patrol your pathetic blog occasionally to torment you…
You’ve been exterminated like the bug you are. You can patrol your truther asshole.
Just MEathead coming back for more …
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Just Me spreading the truth about the 9/11 conspiracy
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It kind of turns into a humor piece after awhile.
Just Me’s Proof of a 9/11 conspiracy
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It was that fucking Bush. He brought down the Towers, among other things.
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Bruce,
So why’d you mention 911 initially (What reasonable person would expect them to report the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about 911 or anything else if their interests or friends interests were at stake and contrary to the facts?”) but fail to mention 911 in your several part rebuttal?
Is it because you’re one of the “Nut Job(s),” as Administrator calls the truthers? So, on 911, put up or shut up and admit your slander of our government. This one’s worth five points. Score: Jackson 5, Bruce 3, even by the best estimates.
So Admin, you think they wired Building 7 the day of 9/11? Seriously? Or do you have some other idea?
Building 7 was badly damaged and burned all day long. It fell due to the damage.
That’s what happened you idiot.
Now provide all of us with a LOGICAL explanation of who, why and how the building was wired for demolition.
This should be real good.
SOUND OF CRICKETS!!!
Because you nutjobs NEVER have a logical explanation for how it happened. All you idiots ever have to say is gravity, blah, blah, freefall, blah, blah.
Same shit different moron.
Learn something you numbskull. Nutjobs hate logic and facts.
Conspiracy theorists say World Trade Center 7 is the best proof for controlled demolition because it wasn’t hit by airliners and only had a few fires. They also claim that there was a confession from the building owner who said he “pulled” it. But this is deceptive because while building 7 wasn’t hit by an airliner, it was hit by the large perimeter columns of the Tower collapse. It was 400 ft away but the towers were more than 1300 ft tall. As the tower peeled open, it easily tilted over to reach building 7. Below is evidence showing that conspiracy theorists are wrong.
As you can see from the graphic below, all the buildings just as far away from both towers as WTC7 were hit. The others were either very short buildings which didn’t have to support a massive load above or had no fire. Only Building 7 had unfought fires and the massive load of 40 stories above them.
http://www.debunking911.com/pull.htm
@ Channel Serfing, who said, “I am curious as to whether you would still support existing and expanded nuclear power if you actually realized how dangerous and deadly it is. Perhaps you’d start looking around at the real alternatives.”
I support doubling or tripling nuclear power in this country…………and the planet, dipshit. The fucking U.N., of all sources, agrees with me and just issued a report saying so. Let me be clear. The existing 104 nuclear plants in this country, including Three Mile Island which is still operating, are safe. The proposed future plants are designed to be even safer.
What the fuck is your hangup on safety anyway? Nothing in this world is perfect. Chernobyl happened because the cheap ass Soviets never installed a reactor shield. Fukushima happened because the Japanese never moved the power switching station next to the backup generators and left it next to the flooded reactor buildings. Duh. Three Mile Island was the classic fart in a hurricane, a fucking coolant pump failure and human error in reacting to the problem resulting in, wait for it, absolutely nothing.
You are the classic Chicken Little, Serf. “The sky is falling, the sky is falling.” You know absolutely nothing about what you’re talking and love to spread fear mongering. Instead, you resort to retorts such as “looking around at real alternatives.” What fucking alternatives, asshole? I told you above that there are NO fucking alternatives. NONE.
You say you have real solutions? Real alternatives? Share your solutions and alternatives, you pompous prick. Save America and the planet. We’re waiting.
Regarding Fukushima, why didn’t the japanese put their nuke plants on their west coast, which is much less exposed to earthquake and tsunami damage?
Jackson,
You moron. All I indicated is that in light of all the lies, deceptions and half truths it is hard to believe the official 911 story or anything else that government reports. And as far a 911 goes I said nothing else. As far as I’m concerned all the 911 truth stories are bullshit and the Governments official report is just another 911 truth story. So fuck off and go concoct some more monkey ass bullshit to feed yourself.
Zara
Who knows? Why didn’t they locate the nuke plants further inland on the east coast? Why didn’t they build a 30-40 foot wall to protect them from tsunamis instead of an 18 foot wall? When a 30 foot tsunami hit, they missed it by 12 feet. Shit happens.
Sorry about that Anonymous,
Didn’t mean to use your ID. For some reason the blanks to fill in when leaving a comment are often filled in with someone else on my system and I didn’t check before I hit send.
Bruce made this comment not anyone else.
Jackson,
You moron. All I indicated is that in light of all the lies, deceptions and half truths it is hard to believe the official 911 story or anything else that government reports. And as far a 911 goes I said nothing else. As far as I’m concerned all the 911 truth stories are bullshit and the Governments official report is just another 911 truth story. So fuck off and go concoct some more monkey ass bullshit to feed yourself.
Here is a 37 second commercial put out by “Remember Building 7” a non-partisan campaign led by 9/11 family members to raise awareness of the destruction of World Trade Center Building 7 so that public pressure will compel the New York City Council and Manhattan District Attorney to open a new investigation.
As you’ll learn, 1500 architects and engineers concluded that the collapse of building 7 was caused by a controlled demolition.
The website is http://www.rememberbuilding7.org.
There is also a 15 minute documentary on the homepage. The url for that is here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZEvA8BCoBw&feature=player_embedded
PS: I also believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and I agree with the economic policies of Paul Krugman
Nutjobs R Us is another site.
Get the fuck off my site you link crazy idiots.
@ Channel Serfing, who said, “Until you can assure essentially ALL future generations of humanity and life generally, that there will be NO accidents, NO earth quakes, NO wars (that cause intentional or collateral damage), NO short-term greed, NO short cuts taken, NO terrorism, AND you can figure out what to do with the radioactive waste from operation not to mention from mining, you have NO business demanding more nuclear.”
Holy shit, dickweed. Could you set your bar just a tad higher? I find it difficult to believe that any rational person would pose such a preposterous challenge. And yes, I’m questioning not only whether you are rational, but whether your IQ hits double digits.
As for what to do with radioactive waste, I have a two word answer. Yucca Mountain. Designed by scientific experts, shut down by irrational political dipshits funded by the Channel Serfing Foundation. Another $15 billion down the drain.
SSS,
Here are headlines just from 2012, covering a significant number of US nuclear plants and facilities that have had serious safety issues this year and last. Articles about the effect of fallout from Fukushima here in the US are included as well.
As Fukushima and Chernobyl and TMI (new information coming out there too – see below) prove, a single disaster can cause insane problems.
Why do you pick the most dangerous way to generate electricity? As one Nuclear Expert in the 2nd to last article points out “Reactors produce 50 years of electricity and half a million years of waste — Not a particularly good deal”.
Seriously SSS what the fuck is with that? You can’t even convince the silly humans to use Yucca Mountain. How are you going to ensure the same race of people manages nuclear to the standard necessary?
Of course a rational person would recognize that the humans can’t safely manage nuclear plants and waste for eternity, so why set them up to fail? I wish you could see how stupid you’re being.
As for your claim of safety, the first article is a few days out of order because it calls bullshit on that absurdity.
As you scan the headlines, you’ll see many facilities that have recently had or are still having serious problems:
– North Anna, near DC (earthquake, radioactive leak)
– New Jersey (fire, leak, at least a temporary emergency shutdown)
– Ft Calhoun, Nebraska (would have been a meltdown, NRC actually prevented it!)
– EPA RadNet (impaired, offline, manipulated)
– San Onofre, San Diego, CA (extreme wear, fire, leak, both reactors shut down – probably permanently)
– Philadelphia (Radiation discharge)
– Hanford, WA (leak, waste may have too much plutonium to process safely, contamination reaching ground water?)
– Los Alamos, NM (dangerously exposed radioactive materials and waste, almost released in wild fire)
– Rocky Flats, CO (contamination as high as 40 years ago, BEFORE cleanup)
– MN (leak?)
– Illinois (earthquake, plant lost power, smoke, leaks, radioactive steam released)
Thank God the industry is SO safe, otherwise a rational person might start to get worried!
To get to these articles go to http://www.enenews.com.
01:58 PM EST on April 28th, 2012 | 77 comments
“Revelations on nuclear plants sound warning” — Harvard study reveals large-scale radiation releases just outside major US city that lasted for decades — “Surely this could not have happened, but apparently it did” (VIDEO)
07:55 AM EST on May 2nd, 2012 | 5 comments
Local CBS News: ‘Slight’ leak was found after post-quake inspection of North Anna nuclear plant — Officials say not actually caused by quake (VIDEO)
03:19 PM EST on April 30th, 2012 | 46 comments
Emergency declared at New Jersey nuclear plant — Multiple fire alarms sound after reactor shuts down — Tests were occurring on emergency cooling system — Cause remains under investigation
09:30 PM EST on April 29th, 2012 | 14 comments
Nuclear Engineer: Ft. Calhoun nuclear plant “likely would have melted down” if operators were not forced by NRC to make enhancements before major flooding (VIDEO)
03:04 AM EST on April 29th, 2012 | 52 comments
L.A. Daily News Column: Radioactive kelp is California’s “most under-reported story of the spring” — “It’s been somewhat radioactive off-and-on for months”
09:07 PM EST on April 26th, 2012 | 10 comments
Gundersen featured on PBS — Host: “Growing movement” to keep California’s San Onofre nuclear plant shut down permanently (VIDEO)
08:31 AM EST on April 25th, 2012 | 24 comments
New Gundersen Interview (AUDIO) — Hundreds turn out to see presentation at city council meeting near San Onofre nuclear plant; Mother speaks about brain cancers in neighborhood
10:52 AM EST on April 24th, 2012 | 59 comments
Gov’t Report: EPA’s ability to protect human health with RadNet was “potentially impaired” for Fukushima — Officials questioned why they were using “dramatically less strict” standards for radiation contamination
05:29 AM EST on April 23rd, 2012 | 97 comments
New Interview: Fukushima poses lethal risk to US West Coast, says Senator — Another bomb waiting to go off — Extreme nuclear vulnerability, especially in Reactor No. 4
08:17 PM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 19 comments
California Nuclear Plant Operator: No further description of fire could be provided — “Cause was still unclear”
04:03 AM EST on April 21st, 2012 | 135 comments
Fire at California’s San Onofre nuclear plant burns for over 40 minutes — Cause unknown
03:33 AM EST on April 20th, 2012 | 5 comments
Fairewinds Energy Education launches new website
12:41 PM EST on April 19th, 2012 | 42 comments
Gundersen: Cesium-134 and -137 detected in Southern California pollen sample — “When you find them both together that’s a Fukushima signature” (VIDEO)
T on April 19th, 2012 | 54 comments
Senate Leader: NRC Commissioner ‘Lied To Congress’ — Could bring Senate to grinding halt
07:33 AM EST on April 16th, 2012 | 15 comments
Alaska’s #2 Newspaper: Spring brings fallout — Cesium-137 believed to cause malevolent genetic mutations, says reprinted editorial
05:22 PM EST on April 13th, 2012 | 93 comments
Radiation discharge near Philadelphia kept secret from public for weeks — No ‘immediate’ health concerns, says NRC
02:09 PM EST on April 12th, 2012 | 46 comments
Problems escalate at California’s San Onofre nuke plant — Second reactor in jeopardy
11:59 AM EST on April 10th, 2012 | 70 comments
San Francisco Bay Area milk sample has highest amount of Cesium-137 since last June — Almost double EPA’s maximum contaminant level
09:00 AM EST on April 10th, 2012 | 46 comments
NRC email reveals US nuclear plant used MOX fuel
10:38 AM EST on April 8th, 2012 | 55 comments
Nuclear Expert: Radiation plume has now hit Hawaii — In a year it’ll probably reach U.S. West Coast (VIDEO)
07:44 AM EST on April 8th, 2012 | 25 comments
UC Berkeley plutonium testing was 200-300 times less sensitive than US gov’t — University researchers still “may consider” performing more precise analysis for alpha particles — EPA detected Uranium-238 in San Francisco
12:00 AM EST on April 8th, 2012 | 6 comments
L.A. Daily News: Casino to be built on site of nuclear reactor meltdown just miles from Los Angeles? Was up to 240 times Three Mile Island — Cesium-137 still up to 1,000 times over limit
06:50 PM EST on April 7th, 2012 | 8 comments
Newspaper: Orange County coastal fish possibly affected by radioactivity — “I would assume it’s there” in the plants and animals off California’s coast says researcher
07:24 AM EST on April 6th, 2012 | 20 comments
NOAA Scientists: Plumes from Asia contribute up to 20% of surface ozone pollution on US West Coast… closely related to radioactive fallout — Maximum at Los Angeles Basin, southwest
09:03 PM EST on April 5th, 2012 | 10 comments
Study Author: California iodine-131 probably double or triple what we reported
09:01 PM EST on April 4th, 2012 | 16 comments
WATCH: Commercial to air on CNN exposes cover-up and radiation leak at California nuke plant (VIDEO)
12:26 AM EST on April 3rd, 2012 | 11 comments
Radiation plume heading toward Hawaii, says Japan gov’t study — Fukushima-contaminated water to hit in under 2 years — Ocean may be 50% of EPA’s maximum contaminant level for drinking water (PHOTO)
02:56 PM EST on April 2nd, 2012 | 15 comments
Fukushima Fallout in New Hampshire: Radioactive iodine at 12,000 atoms per square meter in sediment (STUDY)
10:14 AM EST on April 2nd, 2012 | 74 comments
Fox San Diego: Unprecedented? California nuke plant forbidden from reopening — “We’ve really never seen the Feds take such a drastic step” — Locals stunned, alarmed (VIDEO)
10:19 PM EST on March 31st, 2012 | 93 comments
Radio: Allegations of pet deaths after radiation exposure are supported by top university’s re-analysis of Three Mile Island data (AUDIO)
12:45 AM EST on March 31st, 2012 | 25 comments
Scientists: California fish harmed by Fukushima radiation? Thyroids are sensitive to iodine-131 — Radioactive marterial probably accumulated in opaleye, halfmoon and senorita
EST on March 30th, 2012 | 31 comments
40,000,000 Bq of iodine-131 in a single bed of kelp off Southern California — Amount most likely larger
02:43 PM EST on March 30th, 2012 | 43 comments
Forbes: Nuclear power is no longer a viable source of new energy in US, says Excelon CEO who retired just days earlier
12:59 PM EST on March 30th, 2012 | 26 comments
US News and World Report: Nuclear Power Is On Its Deathbed, Says Expert — Public is riveted on the issue of nuclear safety — Scrutiny is so intense
02:37 AM EST on March 30th, 2012 | 18 comments
Southern California had 2,500 Bq/kg of iodine-131 in seaweed — Over 500% higher than other tests in U.S., Canada
10:25 PM EST on March 29th, 2012 | 60 comments
Study: Fukushima radiation plume contacted North America at California ‘with greatest exposure in central and southern California’
12:05 AM EST on March 26th, 2012 | 60 comments
Fairewinds President: Organic farm in Portland stopped producing food after radiation tests — “Very frightening what happened on West Coast” (VIDEO)
08:05 PM EST on March 23rd, 2012 | 36 comments
Has too much plutonium made Hanford waste untreatable? Western world’s most expensive construction project having nuclear chain reaction worries
11:13 PM EST on March 21st, 2012 | 49 comments
CNN nuclear expert: I think MOX fuel is being used at U.S. reactors — Contradicts gov’t claims — Made in Russia with weapons-grade plutonium (VIDEO)
11:04 AM EST on March 20th, 2012 | 136 comments
‘The Daily Show’ is going nuclear: Nuclear industry will use program for ad campaign that claims to display value of atomic power — Trying to target younger audience -Bloomberg
05:21 PM EST on March 18th, 2012 | 151 comments
US to burn 100s of tons of radioactive waste from Germany in Tennessee
09:07 PM EST on March 17th, 2012 | 44 comments
L.A. Local News: “New problems at the San Onofre nuclear plant” — Special team called in — More tubes fail — NRC trying to figure out why it’s happening so quickly (VIDEO)
01:20 AM EST on March 17th, 2012 | 55 comments
AP: California’s San Onofre nuclear plant shuts down indefinitely over safety worries
03:19 AM EST on March 15th, 2012 | 11 comments
‘Developing Story’ at Los Alamos: “No timetable for any release of details concerning what the substance actually was” — Even newspaper got automated 911 call — Businesses on DP Road still waiting for all-clear — Advised to shelter in place
12:49 AM EST on March 15th, 2012 | 14 comments
Los Alamos sends reverse-911 call warning residents — People told to stay indoors — Container released unknown gas — Caused “flash” on contact with air — Roads closed, Hazmat team dispatched to Material Disposal Area B
09:33 PM EST on March 13th, 2012 | 129 comments
KPBS: Concern over reports of high radiation levels near California nuke plant — Results shared with many residents via internet — Homeland Security professor believes readings not correct
08:31 AM EST on March 9th, 2012 | 32 comments
US Survey: Nuclear industry wrong — Fukushima having major, lasting impact on Americans
02:33 PM EST on March 6th, 2012 | 338 comments
Controversy after US gov’t estimate showed 40,000 microsievert thyroid dose for California infants from Fukushima — Data not released to public — “Very high doses to children”
01:34 AM EST on March 6th, 2012 | 57 comments
Los Angeles-area Meltdown: Cesium-137 still up to 1,000 times higher than standard — Plutonium also detected — Located between Chatsworth and Simi Valley
12:06 AM EST on March 2nd, 2012 | 104 comments
US Regulator: We’ve got to stop labs from testing for Fukushima radiation — “Tell them to back off” — Worried about them talking to press about ‘consequences’
09:46 AM EST on February 28th, 2012 | 78 comments
USGS: Fukushima fallout in US worse than after Chernobyl
08:48 AM EST on February 23rd, 2012 | 19 comments
Portland-area had highest Iodine-131 deposition in US at 5,100 Bq/m² by April 5 -Gov’t Study
08:08 AM EST on February 23rd, 2012 | 48 comments
USGS: Los Angeles area had highest cesium deposition in US after Fukushima
04:10 PM EST on February 22nd, 2012 | 30 comments
North Anna: 53,300 picocuries per liter detected — Not sure where radiation is leaking — “No evidence” that increase in radioactivity related to quake says spokesman
08:55 AM EST on February 22nd, 2012 | 23 comments
AP: Quake-hit North Anna nuke plant leaking radioactivity
09:27 PM EST on February 18th, 2012 | 30 comments
Plutonium up to 1,579 pCi/kg detected near Denver at Rocky Flats — Contamination levels remain as high as 40 years ago, BEFORE site ‘cleaned up’
02:15 PM EST on February 17th, 2012 | 57 comments
Gundersen featured on CNN — NRC refuses to speak to network despite weeks of requests and showing up in person (VIDEO)
10:13 PM EST on February 10th, 2012 | 82 comments
US gov’t secretly injected people with plutonium — Disabled school children fed radioactive oatmeal (VIDEO)
05:32 PM EST on February 10th, 2012 | 22 comments
Troubled Calif. nuke plant may not even apply for a renewal license — Says 4,000 tons of high-level radioactive waste stored onsite
12:41 PM EST on February 10th, 2012 | 54 comments
“This is a developing story”: NBC has learned there’s been a leak at Hanford — “Radioactive reading” near cracked container of radioactive waste
10:48 AM EST on February 10th, 2012 | 31 comments
“Sophisticated Press Manipulation”: Journalist’s detailed critique of PBS Frontline’s Fukushima program
01:57 PM EST on February 9th, 2012 | 50 comments
*NRC approves new US reactors* NRC Chairman says no: “I cannot support issuing this license as if Fukushima had never happened” — Had been a supporter of project
10:42 AM EST on February 9th, 2012 | 19 comments
Expert: “American nuclear industry is on the brink of collapse” (AUDIO)
12:03 AM EST on February 9th, 2012 | 93 comments
TV: Gov’t testing for radioactive material on Hawaii beaches — “It is something that’s been quietly under way for the past year here” — NOAA, EPA, State all preparing together for tsunami debris (VIDEO)
06:29 PM EST on February 8th, 2012 | 53 comments
“No Comment”: Residents near troubled Calif. nuke plant request officials begin cancer study and install radiation detectors — Also: Radioactive leak in Minn., Protests over Georgia nuke project, Brazil to delay reactors… More
06:28 PM EST on February 7th, 2012 | 151 comments
Highest level of radioactive cesium in San Francisco-area milk since September 2011 — Now at 150% of EPA’s maximum contaminant limit (CHART)
PM EST on February 7th, 2012 | 45 comments
San Onofre Whistleblower: This is extremely significant — They had an actual tube rupture — This is very, very significant (VIDEO)
05:00 AM EST on February 7th, 2012 | 58 comments
US gov’t kept worst-case Fukushima scenario secret from public — “Possibility of radiation exceeding safe levels for thyroid doses in Alaska”
02:11 PM EST on February 6th, 2012 | 67 comments
89 sieverts per hour measured in soil near Columbia River in Washington — Worst contamination just feet from groundwater
01:15 PM EST on February 6th, 2012 | 19 comments
Nuclear Expert: Pipe ruptures at Calif. nuke plant could have lead to meltdown, China Syndrome, catastrophic radioactivity release (VIDEO)
11:59 AM EST on February 3rd, 2012 | 37 comments
UPDATE: Worker fell into pool that held reactor core — May have swallowed fuel particles in radioactive water — Wearing life preserver says spokesman
10:33 PM EST on February 2nd, 2012 | 42 comments
Local Paper: “News could be catastrophic for San Onofre” nuke plant in Calif. — Over 800 tubes show damage — Multiple pipes may have burst — Still can’t determine size of leak
09:52 PM EST on February 2nd, 2012 | 21 comments
“Unusual” find at shutdown Calif. nuke plant: “Safety implications could be very, very severe” — “I’ve never heard of anything like that” -Retired NRC engineer
01:42 PM EST on February 2nd, 2012 | 60 comments
Gov’t estimate says radiation released after emergency at Illinois nuke plant was 1 microsievert — 3% of yearly ALARA level set by NRC
10:22 AM EST on February 2nd, 2012 | 45 comments
NRC: We know California nuke plant vented some radioactive gases — Paper: No ‘significant’ danger to workers or public
09:45 AM EST on February 2nd, 2012 | 9 comments
Local TV: People came home to find animals with eyes burned out after TMI evacuation (VIDEO & PHOTOS)
05:46 PM EST on February 1st, 2012 | 18 comments
NRC begins special investigation into water pump malfunction at Illinois nuke plant
04:11 PM EST on February 1st, 2012 | 91 comments
AP: Many tubes found damaged at San Diego-area nuke plant — “Unusual” says NRC — Cause unknown — Radiation could have escaped… Developing
03:39 PM EST on February 1st, 2012 | 37 comments
Radioactive release possible at California nuke plant: “We can’t make a black and white statement that absolutely none escaped” — Workers unable to enter to check if leaking
09:29 AM EST on February 1st, 2012 | 70 comments
NRC spokeswoman for emergency at Illinois nuke plant also works as belly dancer — “Absolutely there’s no threat to the public” (PHOTOS)
11:15 PM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 52 comments
San Diego area nuke plant shut down after ‘potential’ leak — No ‘apparent’ release into atmosphere — No ‘imminent’ danger to public says spokewoman
07:21 PM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 53 comments
Officials admit there was smoke at Illinois nuclear plant — NRC to start special investigation — Diesel generators still supplying power to reactor equipment
06:42 PM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 39 comments
Illinois Emergency Mgmt. Agency testing air around Byron nuke plant — It’s a public duty to verify current radioactivity levels in area, says director
05:23 PM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 18 comments
Nuclear Engineer: Small leaks in pipes carrying reactor water caused radioactivity in steam releases from Illinois nuke plant
03:50 PM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 23 comments
Reaction on Local News: “Everyone is on edge” around Illinois nuke plant — “My niece called and she told me to stay in the house, so that’s what I did” (PHOTOS & VIDEO)
11:58 AM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 11 comments
AP: Why was smoke seen at Illinois nuke plant, but no fire?
10:36 AM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 30 comments
AP: Officials don’t yet know how much radiation is being released from Illinois nuke plant — NRC inspectors in control room
09:43 AM EST on January 31st, 2012 | 25 comments
Rare quake hits near troubled Illinois nuke plant releasing radioactive steam — “That’s right, she said earthquake” (VIDEO)
10:01 PM EST on January 30th, 2012 | 70 comments
State of Wisconsin issues statement on nuclear “incident” in Illinois — Currently monitoring conditions after plant lost power and went offline
07:33 PM EST on January 30th, 2012 | 26 comments
Fireman Eyewitness: “It looked like a lot of smoke coming from containment building” at Byron nuclear plant — Had to be told it was steam — Original call said a building at Byron nuclear plant was filling up with smoke (VIDEO)
06:21 PM EST on January 30th, 2012 | 19 comments
Reporters at Byron Press Conference: A lot of people are calling us about a loud noise — Was a special emergency response team on scene? (VIDEO)
04:10 PM EST on January 30th, 2012 | 26 comments
NRC: “Not a huge concern” at nuke plant outside Chicago — Employees reported seeing smoke coming from transformer after outage, no fire found
02:54 PM EST on January 30th, 2012 | 62 comments
UPDATED: Emergency shutdown at Illinois reactor — Smoke was actually steam containing radioactive material — Workers evacuated — Releases will continue throughout day (PHOTO)
01:48 PM EST on January 30th, 2012 | 5 comments
U.S. University Study: 23% higher incidence of childhood leukemia within 16 km of nuclear facilities… More
04:07 PM EST on January 29th, 2012 | 29 comments
CBC on TMI: Reports of enormous increase in cancer deaths — Infant mortality rates doubled — Birds disappeared — Many mutations observed (VIDEO)
05:31 PM EST on January 24th, 2012 | 46 comments
Sundance Premiere: “Death Row” in NY town where nuclear reactors leaked — “Almost every house on this street had somebody who was sick with cancer or something else” (VIDEO)
12:22 PM EST on January 21st, 2012 | 37 comments
Federal judge rules Vermont can’t close nuclear plant — Must remain open though state wants it shut down — Gundersen featured on local news (VIDEO)
01:51 PM EST on January 18th, 2012 | 40 comments
USATODAY: Official concerns over uncontrolled nuclear reaction risks inside plutonium facility near Portland
08:35 AM EST on January 18th, 2012 | 15 comments
NPR: Newly leaked report warns plutonium levels at Hanford may be much higher than claimed — “The Columbia River is at stake, all of that area and its vitality” says Washington Governor
10:14 AM EST on January 17th, 2012 | 35 comments
Coverup? Safety manager at Washington nuclear site: Criticality could be probable — Worried about hydrogen explosion — Up to 13 times more plutonium than thought, like 20+ Nagasaki bombs
12:09 PM EST on January 16th, 2012 | 107 comments
Over EPA limit: Cesium levels in San Francisco area milk now higher than 6 months ago
02:27 PM EST on January 9th, 2012 | 49 comments
Problems continue to emerge at troubled Ft. Calhoun: Now worse than worst grade a reactor can have and still operate — Plus cause of fire that knocked out spent fuel pool cooling this summer remains unknown
03:17 PM EST on January 8th, 2012 | 9 comments
Two US nuclear plants had quakes exceeding operating basis… while in process of getting licensed (PHOTO)
10:47 AM EST on January 1st, 2012 | 73 comments – (Comments are closed)
Nuclear Expert: Reactors produce 50 years of electricity and half a million years of waste — Not a particularly good deal (VIDEO)
11:54 AM EST on December 29th, 2011 | 38 comments – (Comments are closed)
Iodine-131 in eastern US may have exceeded EPA limit
Channel Serfing
You’re so goddamned stupid, it’s painful to read what you’ve written. You copy and paste this long list of unsubstantiated Chicken Little bullshit (unlinked) and think you’re brilliant. I’m so impressed that it all comes with an Eastern Standard Time date/time group. Oh, that seals its credibility.
I go back to my original challenge. What’s your solution? What are the “real alternatives” (your words) that I haven’t looked at? Tell us how you’re going to take 200,000 megawatts of power OFF the grid and replace it with what? You have no answers, and you know it.
You’re a fucking nihilist in the most classic sense of the word.
It is very interesting to see the combination of faulty and myopic logic you have, along with the untested / unconscious assumptions you make. The anger, vitriol and superiority/inferiority complex you suffer from make it more challenging to communicate with you, but that’s what you are bringing to the table, so I’ll deal with it.
Your Arguments:
1. ONLY Nuclear can provide the massive amounts of electricity we need to continue growing our economy at an exponential rate
2. Because only nuclear can deliver the necessary electricity, we must use it and “double or triple” our nuclear fleet in the US (and world).
Unconscious Assumption
1. Exponential growth of the economy is the only way to human happiness
2. There is never enough – we must always have more – more growth, more people, more electricity, more stuff. We’ll never reach a state of contentment – we can only hope to be happy by eternally striving for more, more, more!
OR perhaps you don’t care about humanity (much more likely) and instead think this
2a. Exponential growth of the economy is the only way that superior people like SSS can be fulfilled, even if the majority of humanity suffers – like they do today – because after all, they’re stupid, inferior and deserve it!
3. Exponential growth is so important that it doesn’t matter if the power we use to enable it is dangerous, deadly and ultimately causes most of humanity to be wiped out
If you are willing to question your unfounded belief in endless, exponential growth, then you’ll start to see a lot of choices that are much better than nuclear power.
Look into CASSE, Steady State Economics, Herman Daly. Please get curious about these concepts, they’re critical to the survival of everyone, including angry, misinformed, frightened people like you.
Once we collectively recognize the stupidity of modelling our economy on the principle of cancer (grow until your host dies), and apply principles of deliberative democracy (see James Fishkin – seriously cool and proven stuff) we can redesign the economy to work for the 99%. Practically speaking an economy for the 99% really means an economy for the 100% plus the planet.
Then you find you don’t need the ridiculous levels of energy you claim we’ll need.
To get us through the crunch period while we build out renewables (and especially push energy efficiency which is bursting with low hanging fruit) we use natural gas because unlike your cherished baseload sources, natural gas is easily ramped up and down to allow renewables to contribute nearly 100% of what they capture, to the grid.
In designing an economy for the 100%, we’ll need to stop issuing money as debt at the government level. And instead we’ll spend it into existence on projects that provide a reasonable ROI including healthcare, education and infrastructure. Infrastructure would include distributed solar on most rooftops, CSP with storage, wind, capturing and using waste heat like Edison did a century ago.
Even without these fundamental improvements to the system we operate in, it is already apparent that we can go 100% renewable by 2030. Here’s one such study out of the Institute for Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis and Stanford University’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering:
http://phys.org/news/2011-01-percent-renewable-energy.html
WOW!!!
It looks like Channel Serfing is kicking SSS’ decrepit old CIA ass on this thread.
SSS may need an extra long nap before he responds.
It reminds me of the epic beatdown SSS received on the Guatamalan CIA Coup thread.
It’s kind of sad.
Previous comment was directed to SSS of course, as is this one.
SSS – so sorry to burden you with going to http://www.enenews.com to link to the articles I pasted. Do you think they’re fake? Why don’t you go find out? If they’re fake, you can have a blast trashing me!
If they’re real – perhaps you can read one or two or three of them and see if you learn anything.
Remember that nuclear power is causing incredible suffering NOW. You are ignoring this which is pretty scary and would be offensive if you weren’t so clueless.
The list of articles shows you how many problems we have NOW with our very old nuclear fleet.
You seem to care quite a bit more about nuclear power than you care about humanity. That is strange because I thought the purpose of nuclear power was to serve humanity.
If you actually put humanity first, then you would insist on all of the spent fuel pools being emptied with the spent fuel being placed in dry cask storage. This is far, far safer than what we’ve got now. Yes it is expensive, but it is insane not to do it.
If you actually put humanity first, then you would insist that we bring our fleet up to a high standard before we embark on growing the fleet.
If you actually put humanity first, you would ponder how do we guarantee that all nuclear countries for all time, maintain a high degree of transparency and safety.
But you don’t care about any of these things. So ultimately it comes down to this: All you care about is growing the nuclear fleet worldwide, no matter how fucked up and dangerous it is.
That’s a bummer. I hope you start to recognize and question your assumptions. Good luck!
Admin
Even though I gave you a thumbs-up for that smart ass comment, fuck you very much. I don’t recall sending you an invitation to join this bloodbath I’m visiting upon Channel Smurfing. Don’t make me catch the next flight back to Philly.
Smurf
You obviously cannot read for comprehension, so let me walk you through this step by step, using the TBP-approved method of counting.
Step Z. I did NOT say, as you wrongly assert, that nuclear power is the only method through which which we can produce “the massive amounts of electricity we need to continue growing our economy at an exponential rate.” I did say that nuclear is one several available technologies which provide baseload power, meaning 24/7, 365. The others are coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro. Go reread what I said, because it includes natural gas as a source of baseload power.
Step aaa. I also said, if you want green, hydro is tapped out essentially. That leaves nuclear as the ONLY GREEN CHOICE (no harmful emissions) available.
Step %. You seem to be hung up on caring for humanity when you stated, “You (meaning me)seem to care quite a bit more about nuclear power than you care about humanity.” What a fucking joke. I advocate a source of energy that is harmless with its atmospheric emissions, and you said above, “To get us through the crunch period while we build out renewables (and especially push energy efficiency which is bursting with low hanging fruit) we use natural gas.” Natural gas pours “only” 60% of the harmful emissions into the atmosphere that a coal plant does. Woo, hoo. Tell me NOW who cares more about humanity?
But you really stepped onto the scaffold, put the noose around your neck, and released the trap door when you said “it is already apparent that we can go 100% renewable by 2030” and posted a link to that laughable Cal Davis-Stanford transportation. Here’s how ignorant and gullible you are. The study advocates by 2030:
15. Building 90,000 (not a misprint) 300 MW solar power plants. Jesus H. Christ. Without getting into the stratospheric cost factor, much less where we’re going to find that much high-grade silicon for the solar panels, that amount of solar power plants would consume 421,875 SQUARE MILES OF U.S. TERRITORY. That’s 14% of the entire United States covered with solar panels. Yeah, that’ll work just fine.
2 B (or not 2 B). Building 4,000,000 5 MW wind turbines. I’ll be generous with you here, Smurf, and assume that a 5 MW wind turbine costs the same as a 1 MW turbine, which is $3 million a pop. Can you do the math, Smurf? Comes out to $12 fucking TRILLION dollars. And this is just ONE aspect of what this shit-for-brains study proposes.
I can cover 50% of what we will need in increased power with nuclear by 2030 for the same price as Obama’s stimulus plan of $840 billion. And I have zero problems with covering the rest with a mixture of natural gas, improving out renewable posture, and dialing back on coal where feasible.
You’re in over your head, Smurf. You’re a fucking uneducated rookie when it comes to energy. You simply don’t know what you’re talking about.
One aspect of my current position is cellulosic ethanol production. Currently we are still several cents more per gallon expensive than oil, BUT there have been many leaps forward in terms of S. cerevisiae selection, as well as better (more efficient) acid catalysis of the cellulosic/hemicellulosic bonds.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this source of fuel grew greatly in the coming years…in fact I’m counting on it lol
On the topic of the powergrid: As it stands now nuclear energy is our best bet. Rather than shunning the idea, our country should embrace it.
Man, our GDP has been truly impressive through the years. It boggles my mind that we still are relying on OIL and COAL for our damned energy. Nuclear Fusion and cellulosic ethanol should have been in the works decades ago.
Congressman Paul is right:
Government cannot invest, it can only redistribute resources. Just look at the mess government created with ethanol. Congress decided that we needed more biofuels, and the best choice was ethanol from corn. So we subsidized corn farmers at the expense of others, and investment in other types of renewables was crowded out.
Now it turns out that corn ethanol is inefficient, and it actually takes more energy to produce the fuel than you get when you burn it. The most efficient ethanol may come from hemp, but hemp production is illegal and there has been little progress on hemp ethanol. And on top of that, corn is now going into our gas tanks instead of onto our tables or feeding our livestock or dairy cows; so food prices have been driven up. This is what happens when we allow government to make choices instead of the market; I hope we avoid those mistakes moving forward.”
One of the key problems facing cellulosic ethanol production is that massive oil subsidies have made it pointless to invest into other areas. The only people pushing into the market are the ones truly out on a limb, or the truly forward thinkers. Let the market establish an oil price, and I guarantee we will see leaps and bounds in renewable energy technology.
PS: Nuclear fusion…seriously wtf, why is it not reliable yet? Spend less money on building bunker busters and more on renewable energy imo
@ ThePessimisticChemist
At last, a rational voice on energy weighs in.
Biomass energy, including cellulosic ethanol, does show enormous promise, particularly in the transportation sector which consumes 90% of our demand for oil. As you pointed out, getting cellulosic ethanol to a competitive point with oil-based gasoline will be a challenge, particularly in light of a fucked-up federal policy which supports corn-based ethanol. What an unmitigated disaster that is.
Channel Smurfing heads off into la-la land when he starts spouting off about humanity and “endless economic growth,” but never explains how he proposes to stop people in the U.S. from having babies at a rate which increases the nation’s population, thus creating a need for more jobs and more businesses and more houses and more cars and thus an increased demand for more energy. He must know that any such attempt by government to control population, a la China, will lead to a horrible dictatorial tyranny, so he just throws it out there without explanation as to what he would do about it.
And he also ignores the increasing costs to a consumer’s electric bill which are about to hit every community which has been forced by government to get X percent of its power from renewables such as solar and wind. Power companies have invested billions to add renewables to their menu by government mandate, but they are all getting ready to request rate increases, which they will get, to pay for their capital investment. Guess who gets blasted the most by a 15-20% increase in their electric bill? The little guy.
Actually, if the oil market wasn’t subsidized we already would be using cellulosic ethanol in our cars. Right now the only plant-based feed stock we can’t effectively hydrolyze are wood products, and things are getting more and more efficient all of the time.
I’ve worked in two plants over the last few years, both two different approaches to the problem, and both of them showed great promise in ethanol production. One in the approach to the hydrolysis itself, and the other in their strain selection.
Unfortunately I can’t link you guys data due to confidentiality agreements, but please believe me when I say that government intervention is what is completely screwing over our energy right now.
SSS – you are so misinformed, god damn. After seeing the absolute beat down you took trying to defend the CIA, and yet you learned NOTHING, I can see that you are essentially hopeless.
Despite that I’ll try to at least protect others from your dangerous, willful ignorance.
Renewables are already as cheap or cheaper than coal, and way the fuck cheaper than nuclear.
Article:
Wind energy and other renewables much cheaper than coal
Link:
http://blog.ewea.org/2012/03/wind-energy-and-other-renewables-much-cheaper-than-coal/
Coal prices have been going up and up for the past 2 decades and will continue to go up as long as the growthers are able to keep it all going. Utilities don’t care though because they almost always get to pass through the fuel costs 100% to the ratepayer. So right there you’ve got a fundamental disconnect between what is good for the utility and what is good for the ratepayer.
The cost to build a nuke plant is at an all time high and still rising. The economics of nuclear simply do not work, even when you’ve go this ridiculous price-anderson act that protect the communist / anti-free market moronic utilities from paying for the insane damage that occurs when something goes wrong with a nuclear plant.
The cost of renewables continues to drop despite the fact that the subsidies for coal, nuclear and oil are far larger than those for renewables. And despite the fact that what subsidies renewables do get are always under threat of being discontinued from one year to the next – very hard on the industry, yet they manage.
You just flat out ignore the massive evidence of problems with nuclear plants NOW.
You simply don’t want to face reality SSS. Instead you whine about the EDT timestamps and hope that the article titles I posted are bogus. You are so fearful or worse that you can’t even follow a fucking link to find out.
As for endless population growth, maybe you’re unaware that healthy societies reach a stasis and quit growing endlessly? If we actually supported democracy and ended our War on (of) Terrorism and our War on Drugs, 3rd world populations would stabilize quickly.
Of course as a former CIA terrorist yourself, you have done your part to keep 3rd world countries down, uneducated, out of control of their own destinies. So you have done your part to contribute to those countries pumping out babies at ridiculous rates.
You think we’re so different from China? Again you reveal your myopic idiocy.
The US is well on its way to fascism. Do you disagree?
Which kabuki party do you root for? Did you like Bush fascism better than Obama fascism? Obama’s better at it – all rock star and charismatic while he signs the NDAA, massively increases drone-strikes, kills Americans without due process and claims its his right.
Given the way you express yourself, I bet you like it better when the neocons are in charge of torture, war and gutting of the Constitution.
It probably chaps your hide that a goddamned black man, a putative liberal no less, is better at fascism than Bush/Cheney.
Did you check out a single god damned link I provided for you? Do you have ANY interest in a steady state economy?
Do you fucking care that if spent fuel pool # 4 collapses it’s going to release the equivalent of 800 nuclear bombs worth of radiation AT ONCE?
Article:
Gundersen: Move south of equator if Unit 4 fuel pool goes dry — Like cesium from all 800 nuclear bombs ever dropped on Earth, except all at once (VIDEO)
Link for SSS:
http://enenews.com/gundersen-move-south-equator-unit-4-fuel-pool-dry-lesson-like-cesium-all-800-nuclear-bombs-dropped-earth-except-all-video
This next article is for jackasses like you SSS.
Article:
Kyoto Nuclear Professor: “There is no longer any such thing as clean and safe food” after radiation from Fukushima spread around planet — People who advanced nuclear power should be made to eat the extremely contaminated items (VIDEO)
Link:
http://enenews.com/japan-expert-longer-clean-safe-food-after-fukushima-radiation-spread-around-planet-people-advanced-nuclear-power-be-made-eat-extremely-contaminated-food-video
Of course the “good” news is you already are, even here in the US of A!
Article:
Radio: Studies showing cesium all the way down West Coast; Pine needles from So. California; Ground samples from Vancouver and Oregon — Not a lot, my biggest concern is bioaccumulation as it works up food chain (AUDIO)
Link:
http://enenews.com/nuclear-expert-studies-showing-cesium-all-down-west-coast-pine-needles-california-ground-vancouver-oregon-lot-biggest-concern-bioaccumulation-works-food-chain-audio
Article:
San Francisco Bay Area milk sample has highest amount of Cesium-137 since last June — Almost double EPA’s maximum contaminant level
Link:
http://enenews.com/april-milk-sample-highest
Wind turbines, hydro and solar cells aren’t that great hoss. Wind turbines do have a negative effect on the environment, hydro completely destroys entire ecosystems and comes with the added bonus of being almost completely played out and solar cells use a lot of materials we could be using for other purposes.
I wonder if the US could pull its head out of its ass long enough to pop out viable Nuclear Fusion. All of that other shit is just playing for time. If we don’t come up with a REAL replacement for fossil fuels we are going to be SOL sooner rather than later.
@ Flannel Sniffing
Nice personal attack. After calling me a CIA terrorist, you forgot to play the Nazi card. What a mental midget. BTW, I’m a registered Libertarian and have a Ron Paul campaign sign in my den window facing the street. Surprised? Of course, you are, you supercilious fuckwad.
You keep coming back to all these “We’re Doomed” stories about Fukushima. No one, including me, argues that Fukushima wasn’t a disaster – it was- and will require close attention for years to come, but I’m not buying all the speculation of what might happen. The fucking reactor at Chernobyl exploded, asshole, and fired off a nuclear radiation plume toward central Europe and Scandanavia. Yet the immediate and collateral damage remained largely local. The planet survived.
But you finally showed your true colors when you posted that link to the pie-in-the-sky Cal Davis-Stanford transportation study, which I totally destroyed above. You have no concept or grasp of baseload electrical production and hang your hat on solar and wind as the wave of the future. Solar plants produce their peak design load maybe 33-40% of the time, tops. The BEST wind turbine farms will give you peak production 25-40% of the time, maybe. Both are backed by baseload plants.
In your latest post, you sent me to a web site of the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), which I’m sure all readers will agree is totally unbiased (how would you react if I posted a link to a pro-nuclear web site and told you to go to it, punk). The site claims that wind is cheaper than baseload power plants (coal, natural gas, nuclear, etc). How can you claim that when wind DOESN’T WORK 60-75% OF THE TIME? Absurd.
But here’s the clincher of how Flannel Sniffing thinks when it comes to “proving” his point. The EWEA web site provided a calculator to let readers see how “cheap” wind power it. Here’s a direct quote on how to use the calculator:
“Users can TYPE IN THEIR OWN ASSUMPTIONS on, for example, coal and gas prices, FUTURE CARBON COSTS, capital costs and availability.”
In other words, you can just make shit up. Goddamn, does it get any dumber than that? Well, yes it does. Because dumbfuck Flannel Sniffing thinks this is legitimate methodology.
So get the fuck out of my face, Butt Sniffer.
It looks like the wise old spy of TBP is getting hot under the collar.
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Maybe some Lawrence Welk music will calm you down.
From Mencken to truthdouches to a mighty fray over nukilar powers…..
Yeah man… great fun
Admin
I administered a grotesque thrashing to Flannel Sniffing. Blood all over. That mentally diminutive dwarf won’t be showing his face around these parts for a long time, if ever. And if he does, he’d better be ready to slap leather.
Through my sensitive sources, I was able to obtain this late breaking, actual photo of Butt Sniffer taken just this afternoon. His medical insurance company is planning to cancel his policy.
[img]http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS2khKxhcmV3Wko8NYDTljkNjzbwUitH20Z8lhLPRbLamKCe8FOBg[/img]
My problem with nuclear power is the limited liability afforded to the industry due to the Price Anderson Act (I have no idea what the laws are in Japan or other countries). Let the power companies pay market insurance rates and then unregulate the entire industry, including the spent fuel issue. Even fucking Fukushima wouldn’t have been much of a big deal if not for all the spent fuel stored on site.
Zara
I say again. Yucca Mountain. We have 104 nuclear reactors in this country storing spent fuel on site. Yucca Mountain was designed to eventually store all that spent fuel in dry caskets safely (something Butt Sniffer never acknowledged), but politics shut down sound science.
All due to the hysteria of Harry Reid, the mayor of Las Vegas, and Butt Sniffer.
SSS, Another proposal was to dump it (presumably glassified) into the Marianas Trench and let plate techtonics and the earth’s mantle recycle it.
@ ThePessimisticChemist
I just thought of something.
You said, “I’ve worked in two plants over the last few years, both two different approaches to the problem, and both of them showed great promise in ethanol production” when referring to your expertise with cellulostic ethanol. You also said you can’t go into details due to confidentiality agreements.
Ok, let’s work with that. Setting aside your connections to propietary information, you have to have some information you can share which, in general terms, can add to our knowledge of bio mass energy production.
While we all can google the subject, there’s nothing like hearing it from the horse’s mouth. And no, I’m not setting you up if you have concerns about my CIA background. I just want to know about what you think IN GENERAL about the future’s general trajectory about bio mass energy, particularly its potential as a major baseload producer.
Some quick definitions for people:
Cellulosic Ethanol: Taking plant matter (grass clippings, corn stalks/stover, silage) and breaking down the plant fibers into their component parts, such as cellulose (a long chain of sugars), hemicellulose (similar, and easier to break down), lignin (useless) and other compounds. This is then fed to microorganisms such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae which digest the sugars and produce ethanol as a byproduct. The ethanol is then removed and purified (methods varied) and then we can use it for fuel. I believe in the USA its 85% ethanol and we provide additives to keep people from drinking from the pump.
Acid catalysis: Chemical process for breaking down the plant matter into its sugar components
Enzymatic catalysis: Biological process for breaking down the plant matter into its sugar components
I have only hands-on experience with the acid catalyzed cellulosic ethanol, however my current field crosses over with enzymatic ethanol pretty readily, indeed our R&D might accidentally turn out some products that our company can’t use, but we could easily license or just sell the patent.
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The last numbers I saw (2010) if gas were to eclipse $4 per gallon country-wide then cellulosic ethanol would be roughly tied with oil. That was then, I’m not sure what it is now. My boss could rattle the numbers off his head for you, but I’m still playing catch up.
Before we go much further, here is some of the issues with cellulosic ethanol and ethanol in general:
1) Ethanol yields less energy than gasoline. This means you need to burn more to go further.
2) Different feed stocks provide different levels of sugars under current methods of production. Companies are trying to apply the same process to different feed stocks, and as of right now its not working too well. One gentleman I’ve worked with has a pretty brilliant system, he’s developing modular reactors tailored to different feed stocks.
3) R&D: This stuff isn’t gas, we aren’t perfecting a known science, we are trailblazing a new one. In the age of quarterly reports, that means that investors won’t help out this science unless its more financially feasible. Corn ethanol gets its hand held because politicians from corn producing states understand “feed microbes corn, get fuel” but don’t understand the slightly more complicated method for cellulosic production.
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Pros:
1) Renewable resource thats easily harvested and DOESN’T cut into world food production. In many cases its a by-product of said food production. For example, a farmer who harvests sweet corn could then sell the stover to a plant to use for ethanol production.
One of the complaints I hear about this is that people think it ruins the soil, but they need not worry as the process leaves many plant proteins and other nitrogen containing compounds intact. After the sugars have been removed, the mash can be used as fertilizer.
2) All natural. A few processes use concentrated acids, however proper neutralization steps remove this danger.
3) Location: Plant biomass is everywhere. No need to build massive pipelines spanning countries. No need to transport massive amounts of fuel via cargo.
We could remove our dependency upon oil almost completely over the course of the next 30-40 years.
Please note, I mean oil as a source of fuel. Obviously we would continue to need it for development of polymer chemistry.
TPC
Ok, thanks. I note that biomass accounts for over half of the energy production in the “renewables” category (solar is a measly 1% and wind just 9%) and 4% of the total energy production in this country when the electrical power and transportation sectors are combined.
So biomass is growing as a source of energy, but I strongly suspect this is mainly due to corn-based ethanol. We need to move in the direction of biomass energy in the technologies in which you are/were involved. Makes so much more sense.
See, if we legalized weed the stems could be used for bio-mass
/cage/rattle
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SuperMoon tonight
http://phys.org/news/2012-05-sky-supermoon-due-saturday.html
Its cheap, and effective.
The only thing stopping me from making my own fuel is the fact that I live in an apartment.
I’d love to buy a start up lab and run a comparison of acid vs. enzymatic catalyzed systems, utilizing different strains and new types of bacteria and fungi.
After I get some experience under my belt, I might look up a certain PhD I did some contractual work for. He’s the chap with a modular system, and I really think it could take the US by storm with a little help.
An entertaining read … HL would have loved it, the comments, I mean.
especially “If we actually supported democracy and ended our War on (of) Terrorism and our War on Drugs, 3rd world populations would stabilize quickly. ” I laughed so hard on that one.
And the invasion died down and the comments ended with a good dialogue, what’s not to like?
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What a pathetically predictable retard you are.
Critical Thinking?
You couldn’t even spell it without a spell-checker.
Where did you get that little collection of rules a la critical thinking?
‘Cos you sure ain’t never used them in this piece of shit article.
As the beginning paragraphs were quite reasonable, and in praise of HLM, I can only presume you plagiarized that part? Once your own writing and opinions appeared it all turned into the usual alt personal fictionalized piffle. Nobody will see through you egotistical alt right bent, weaved into this fairy tale of economics? No not much they won’t. Unless of course they actually have a brain. No need for any hard line critical thinking here, in order to dismiss your thinly veiled clap trap.
You are an insult to H L Mencken.
Honesty? Hahahahahahaha…….
Your stuff on debt is fatuous crap. Bush 89% increase Obama 10% increase. Elementary school economics Dr Watson!
Health care. The only 1st world country in the world without it. SO F***ING DUMB!! Too stupid to see how without it, the real costs to the USA are massive!
You have no right to associate yourself with H L Mencken. You are a totally dishonest egotist who, no doubt, thinks he is one step ahead of the world. HLM would have had you shoveled into the nearest shit pit along with Donald Dickhead Trump!
This is disgusting article and site. It is a premeditated attempt to deceive the innocent, trusting and naive reader, claiming to champion the honesty and integrity of HLM! Ha! But in fact actually being nothing more than a stinking shit and sticks attempt at some kind of Trojan Horse to parlay your pathetic lies and bullshit, of which Limbaugh et al would be so very proud.
US debt year 2000: $5.7 TUSD
US debt year 2008: $10.0 TUSD
Increase: 75% (Bush years)
US debt year 2016: $19.6 TUSD
Increase: 96% (Obama years)
So to quote you in your own comment, you dumb fuck (welcome to TBP, by the way): “Honesty? Hahahahahahaha…….”
Liquid Florium Thoride Reactors are the answer. Cheap, (The tailings from one US mine would power all necessary reactors in the United States), safer than current nuclear reactors and radioactive waste stabilizes in hundreds of years rather than tens of thousands of years.
Nice post. I often quote HL myself. F. Bastiat a go to source as well.