Land Of The Rising Core Temperature, Part 16

Japanese radiation monitoring has gone crowdsourced as seawater radioactivity from the Fukushima Daiichi plant is reaching disturbing levels.

Radioactivity levels are soaring in seawater near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant, Japan's nuclear safety agency said on Saturday, two weeks after the nuclear power plant was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami.

Even as engineers tried to pump puddles of radioactive water from the power plant 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, the nuclear safety agency said tests on Friday showed radioactive iodine had spiked 1,250 times higher than normal in the seawater just offshore the plant.

But everything is fine, despite nearly daily "spikes" in radiation levels for the last two weeks.  The reality of radiation in Japan looks like this:





Here's the reality.  The spin continues.

Officials said iodine 131 levels in seawater 30 km (19 miles) from the coastal nuclear complex were within acceptable limits established by regulations and the contamination posed little risk to aquatic life.

"Ocean currents will disperse radiation particles and so it will be very diluted by the time it gets consumed by fish and seaweed," said Hidehiko Nishiyama, a senior official from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

Despite that reassurance, the disclosure may well heighten international concern over Japanese seafood exports. Several countries have already banned milk and produce from areas around the Fukushima Daiichi plant, while others have been monitoring Japanese seafood.

Yes, everything's fine in Japan.  Nothing to worry about in the seafood or the plants or the leafy vegetables or the milk or the rain.  So much not to worry about, the UN isn't reconsidering worldwide nuclear safely regs or anything.

The prolonged efforts to prevent a catastrophic meltdown at the plant have also intensified concerns around the world about nuclear power. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said it was time to reassess the international atomic safety regime.

You think?  Gives Earth Hour a whole new meaning today, doesn't it?

The Badger Awakens, Part 3

After their dictatorial little plan to hold Wisconsin Democrats in contempt to prevent them from being able to vote in committee fell apart, Wisconsin Republicans were knocked for a loop by the state courts saying that the procedure they used to pass Gov. Scott Walker's union busting bill violated the state's open meeting laws.  The court put the law on hold while the issue was presented to the state's Supreme Court.

The response of Wisconsin Republicans to this?  We don't need no steenking badger court.

The judge's order "restrain[ed] and enjoin[ed] the further implementation" of the law, including the prevention of Secretary of State Doug LaFollette (D) from publishing the act in the Wisconsin State Journal, which acts as the state's official newspaper for the purpose of giving the public official notice of new laws -- the final step for the law to take effect. That decision is now going through an appeals process, which remains up in the air.

But now, state Republicans have had the bill published through a different office -- the Legislative Reference Bureau, which handles drafting and research for the legislature -- according to the LRB's statutory requirement to publish legislation within ten days of enactment. Interestingly, the LRB itself says that this publication does not constitute action that would put the law into effect. But the state's Republican leaders disagree. Senate Majority Scott Fitzgerald (R) says the LRB publication constitutes official publication and the insists the law will take effect Saturday.

In direct violation of the court order.  Yeah, Republicans care about law and order and all that, as long as they agree with it.  Otherwise, screw you.

So what does this all mean? Well, it now appears that Republicans are ready to move ahead with the new law eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public employee unions, despite a court order that prevented not only 'publication' but any "further implementation" of the statute. The move is almost certain to spark yet more litigation and provide more grist for the Democratic efforts to recall Republican state Senators this year and Walker himself next year.

You think?   These enfants terrible would rather dispense with process anyway and just govern by dictatorship.  They're hard-wired for it.

I think this action just bought another several thousand recall votes.

StupidiNews, Weekend Edition!

• Libyan rebels have retaken the city of Ajdabiya after NATO air forces bombed Qaddafi tanks outside the city walls.
• The Oxford English Dictionary has added OMG, BFF, IMHO and other net/text acronyms as official words.
• Syrian protests have gone national this weekend as President Bashar Assad's security forces used live ammunition on thousands gathered.
• The Sendai quake and tsunami may lower global automobile production by as much as 600,000 per month.
• Whooping cough is making an unfortunate comeback in the US as vaccinated adults are showing signs of still contracting the disease.