Tag Archives: banks

Fukushima

Japanese government reveals just how bad General Electric designed Fukushima Nuclear accident could have been (or might still be)!

Two weeks after the nuclear disaster started, at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the Japanese Atomic Energy Commission submitted a worst case scenario to the government.

It could have been (and might still be) worse than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The official reason why the report was not made public, is because government officials did not consider it an official document!  The real reason is that the report was quickly dismissed by officials, and then forgotten, until it was discovered in an office of the Atomic Energy Commission, at the end of 2011.

Currently there is a 20 km (12 miles) mandatory evacuation zone around Fukushima Daiichi, some experts say it should be expanded.  Under the worst case scenario it should be 170 km (105.6 miles)!

The scenario also called for voluntary evacuations out to 250 kilometers (155 miles).  That would include all of Tokyo!

The nuclear reactors are considered in cold shut down, but they are far from stable.  Currently, Reactor 2 keeps heating up and Tokyo Electric Power Company officials don’t know why!

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Black Horse & What Economic Recovery? South American Economist says current U.S. & European economic experts are “Stupid”! Another reason why Universities are a waste of money!

The following statements are from Artur Manfred Max-Neef, a Chilean economist, who began teaching economics in the 1960s at Berkeley in California.

“This economy is crazy and poisonous. I am an economist, and I have been fighting against the economy that is taught the way it is being taught and being practiced. I have been fighting it for almost 40 years of my life, because it’s an absurd economy that has nothing to do with real life. It’s all fabrications…”

“We are simply, dramatically stupid. We act systematically against the evidences we have. We know everything that should not be done. There’s nobody that doesn’t know that. Particularly the big politicians know exactly what should not be done. Yet they do it!”

“After what happened since October 2008, I mean, elementally, you would think what? That now they’re going to change. I mean, they see that the model is not working. The model is even poisonous, you know? Dramatically poisonous. And what is the result, and what happened in the last meeting of the European Union? They are more fundamentalist now than before! So, the only thing you know that you can be sure of, that the next crisis is coming, and it will be twice as much as this one. And for that one, there won’t be enough money anymore. So that will be it. And that is the consequence of systematical human stupidity.”

“The university is, for me, the main responsible for this. The university today has become an accomplice of maintaining a world which we don’t want, because if you don’t teach something different to the economists, well, how the hell are you going to change it when they are professionals, you know, working?”

“….it ceases to be a discipline, it ceases to be a science, and it becomes a religion. And that is what economics, neoliberal economics, is today.”

“…economists know nothing about ecosystems. They don’t know nothing about thermodynamics, you know, nothing about biodiversity or anything. I mean, they are totally ignorant in that respect. And I don’t see what harm it would do, you know, to an economist to know that if the beasts would disappear, he would disappear as well, because there wouldn’t be food anymore. But he doesn’t know that, you know, that we depend absolutely from nature. But for these economists we have, nature is a subsystem of the economy. I mean, it’s absolutely crazy!”

Five postulates and one fundamental value for economists in the coming new world:

1: The economy is to serve the people and not the people to serve the economy. 

2: Development is about people and not about objects. 

3: Growth is not the same as development, and development does not necessarily require growth. 

4: No economy is possible in the absence of ecosystem services.

5: The economy is a subsystem of a larger finite system, the biosphere, hence permanent growth is impossible.

The fundamental value of the new economy: No economic interest, under no circumstance, can be above the reverence of life.

For more on Max-Neef’s insight into why our economic world is collapsing check out Democracy Now!

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

 

Fukushima

Japan Modern Day Atlantis round 7 & What Economic Recovery? People fleeing Nuclear disaster in Japan destroying the local economy and local governments

The Japanese National Police Agency have released the latest numbers regarding people leaving the disaster hit areas of Miyagi, Iwate, and Fukushima prefectures.

At this point more than 150,000 people have left the Tohoku region (where the affected prefectures are).  Just a few weeks ago, in January, is was reported that 31,381 people left Fukushima Prefecture alone.  But now, February 11, that number has jumped to 53,000!

Local officials are now saying if people keep leaving at that rate the local economy will be destroyed, along with tax revenues.

Earlier in the week, the Japanese national government reported that reconstruction efforts are not taking place because contractors can not find enough workers who are willing to work in the nuclear disaster area.  This too will destroy the local economies.

And it’s not just people fleeing the Tohoku Region, back in October, 2011, the Japanese Foreign Ministry reported that a record 1.1 million people left the entire country of Japan, just seven months after the March 11 disasters!

At this point the Japanese National Police say 15,787 people have been confirmed dead, and 3,302 are still missing, from the March 11, 2011 disasters.

JAPAN MODERN DAY ATLANTIS ROUND 6: NE HONSHU TO BE HIT BY ANOTHER MAGNITUDE 8+ QUAKE

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

Red & White Horse: Iran says Western sources behind lies about Iran sending troops to Syria. Russia says Syrian people caught in the middle of game of conquest by the West. Gingrich behind the curve, Western forces already in Syria!

Russian media claim a Chinese newspaper has published an article that says Iran is sending 15,000 troops to Syria.

The Russians asked several Iranian university and media officials about this: “As far as I know there is not and will not be any program to dispatch Iranian military troops to Syria.”- Reza Moghadasi, Mehr News

“Iran has no troops in the country. Iran has never had troops involved in the problems within Syria. Someone in the Chinese media has been receiving information that is completely false.”-Seyed Mohammad Marandi, University of Tehran

But, so far, there has been no comment from Iranian government leaders.

Despite some U.S. Republican pining over covert military action in Syria, an Israeli military intelligence source (called DEBKAfile) a has already confirmed that indeed, Western and Qatari military forces are already in Syria, helping the Free Syrian Army.

Russian government leaders are accusing the U.S. and Europe of using the Syrian people as pawns in their game of world conquest: “This is a global game; this is about geo-political and geo-economic interests and unfortunately countries like Syria are being held hostage for the geo-political and geo-economic interests of Western countries.”-Konstantin Kosachev, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee

Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

Kit Bashing, Technology

Kit Bashing: Iran to display life size model of U.S. Stealth Drone, sends Obama a smaller hot pink version

Iranian media reports that a full scale model of the U.S. RQ-170 stealth drone will be used in upcoming parades celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

Also, Reuters reporting that Iranian officials answered U.S. President Barack Obama’s demands to have the drone sent back to the U.S., by sending him a small hot pink model of the drone instead.

The model sent to Obama is said to have an inscription that reads “we will step on the United States”.

The Iranians say the toy stealth drone is selling like hot cakes in Iran, at $4 per model, they will be sending Obama his toy model via the Swiss embassy: “We made the ‘RQ’ in pink as it is Mr. Obama’s favorite color and we will send it to him via the Swiss embassy.”-Seyyed Saeed Hassan-pour, Aaye Company (they make the toy model)

Fukushima

What Global Warming? Mother Earth to the Rescue? Record snowfall in Japan will help clear radiation contamination. Don’t eat the yellow snow!

Despite claims of overall global warming, Europe and Japan are still getting hit with record low temps.  In Japan record snowfall could actually help fight the radiation contamination from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster reactors.

The heavy snow would help sweep the air of radiation, and sweep the surfaces of buildings, plants, cars and the ground of “external” radiation.  But this in turn would make the snow radioactive, so a new twist on the joke about not eating yellow snow!

Another problem is that any snowmelt getting into the ground will be absorbed by plants, making them “internally” contaminated.  It would be a good idea for Japanese to test the snow for contamination.

 

Business/Economics, International, U.S.

White Horse & World War 3: U.S. imposes sanction after sanction against Iran, Acts of War

I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.

February 6, 2012, Nobel Peace prize winner, U.S. President Barack Obama, has issued an executive order blocking all Iranian government assets held in U.S. banks.  An executive order means he did this without involving Congress.

This move follows additional sanctions made in January, which effectively cut off Iran’s private banking sector from doing business with the West.

The sanctioning of Iran’s banks come after it was clear that oil embargoes won’t work, since Iran is itself working on a bill to end oil shipments to Europe.

If you study military science you’ll realize that sanctions are indeed acts of war (it’s what caused the Japanese to attack Pearl Harbor): “When you put on strong sanctions, those are acts of war.”-Ron Paul, Texas Republican

 

Fukushima

Government & Corporate Incompetence: Reactor 2 at Fukushima Daiichi heating up, possibly due to a plumbing screw up!

On 27 January 2012, the temperature in reactor 2 was at 45 Celsius (113 Fahrenheit). On 05 February it’s at 73.3 Celsius (163.9 Fahrenheit).

Tokyo Electric (now effectively state owned due to running out of money) reports that the rise in temp could be due to some recent plumbing work.  Hello!

Another problem is that two separate thermometers are giving cooler temp readings, so they’re not sure which ones to believe.  To be safe they’re going with the higher temp readings.

TEPCo is now pumping 10.6 tons of water per hour, trying to keep the General Electric designed Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 2 from overheating.

Fukushima

What Economic Recovery? 130,000 Japanese flee 11 March 2011, disaster areas!

The Tohoku region, which has three of the prefectures hit hardest by the 11 March 2011 disasters, saw 129,385 people leave.

The prefectures affected are of Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima.  Fukushima had the most people leave; 31,381.

Believe it or not, people did actually move into the region.  88,159 people moved in, making the net loss of population 40,000. According to Japan’s Internal Affairs Ministry, that’s still the biggest decline in population, in that region, since 1970.

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Black Horse & What Economic Recovery? Exxon Mobil to quit Japan

…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

Exxon Mobil announced that they will give up their controlling stake in Japan’s Tonen General, a major Japanese refinery.

This comes as Japan has 94% of it’s nuclear power plants shut down, and the government planning on increasing power generation through petroleum products.

Officially Exxon Mobil says demand for petroleum is down in Japan, because of fuel efficient vehicles.

Could the real reason be that Japan’s economy is in shambles, with record unemployment levels in 2011, so that even if demand for oil products went up no one is able to pay for them?