The Weekly Poll
Results
The 'Glow in the Dark' Edition
WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is endorsing nuclear energy like never before, trying to win over Republicans and moderate Democrats on climate and energy legislation. Obama singled out nuclear power in his State of the Union address, and his spending plan for the next budget year is expected to include billions of more dollars in federal guarantees for new nuclear reactors... Obama's new climate card: nuclear power - Climate Change- msnbc.com
Do you support the increased use of nuclear power in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?
Well, then, Poll-fans, we've a great collection here and that's a fact!... I LIKE it!...
Adam in NoHo pragmatically said...
Well, we've got to do something and treating mountains like boiled eggs to scoop out the coal isn't the answer. Oil was free, now the only free energy we have is wind, solar and geothermal. Coal has too many drawbacks to use on a large scale.
My hobby-horse is why can't all new building include solar and water capture? We specify all sorts of other specs for structural integrity, why not make all new building as green as possible and make it easy and cheap (regulations and subsidies) to retrofit?
(Retrofit sounds like a good use of 'Stimulus' funds, Adam. It would create jobs, too, so much the better! )
Claudia was emphatic!
NO With the rapid decline in expertise, competency and responsibility in our society, why would anyone trust the Nuclear industry? We can't even trust the dog food industry anymore.
(particularly the Chinese dog food industry... Oh, and watch out for their dry wall, too... and cadmium in their jewelry... and, so on...)
rox.aubrey scornfully replied...
Idiotic move. Really. So much money to be made by so few people and what do we the people get in return? Spent nuclear rods, leaks, terrorism targets in our backyard, dirty bomb material, abandoned mines, polluted water tables and land near those mines.. For over 250,000 years..., not to mention that the plants aren't' really environmentally friendly at all. I mean, it takes a lot of juice to process the uranium, juice that usually comes from standard generating plants, then there's the waste from the processing, and they use more water than regular power generation plants, just to name a few things. OH, and don't get me started on the cost and corner cutting things that will happen during construction, regular human error and negligence and good old-fashioned greed. Yeah, this is a genius move.
Honestly, he's either a complete idiot, or completely bought and paid for by the nuclear lobby... Or both! {insert feigned shock here.}
Oh, and FYI, if you've ever watched "Life After Humans", please take note of the fact that they NEVER mention what happens to all the nuclear plants and spent fuel rods should the human population of earth be destroyed or decimated. Hint: massive meltdowns everywhere, and I mean everywhere, with radioactive plumes traveling the globe.
Doesn't THAT just perk up your day?
(Uh... actually, no... But, thanks anyway!)
DRD has a graphic, yet appropriate, analogy to share (Warning! Gross out alert!)...
I was born in the time period of the 'outhouse' at the rear of the lot. As I recall, there were any number of short-comings with that arrangement, especially in severe winter weather. But, to me the greatest draw-back was the need to clean out the spent food on a regular time schedule! It is very unappealing to be seated on a one-hole seat and not enjoy any space in the drop zone beneath your behind!
In like manner, to me the greatest drawback to nuclear power is what to do with the spent fuel that would require regular disposal somewhere on our earth! Keeping in mind that unlike dung the spent fuel from a nuclear reactor takes thousands of years to cool and as you gather more of it the longer it takes. Dung rebuilds the soil of the earth; nuclear waste poisons the soil of the earth! There are other possible ways to generate power and I would vote to aggressively search those out with the greatest possibilities for success and rely on nuclear only as a last desperate attempt to generate power!
(Thanks, Don... I think...)
Roly cites a great idea...
The only way to go in the nuclear side is with Thorium. It produces less waste (hardly any), you can reuse the current waste and the process is inherently safe and cannot melt down or explode.
(Roly, I didn't know about Thorium until you mentioned it. I found this when I investigated [
New age nuclear | COSMOS magazine]...)
litebug stated...
I am opposed to both Nuclear and so-called "Clean Coal", which isn't. I was very disappointed when Obama touted them in his speech last week.
(The Man has been disappointing a lot of people lately... Not smart)
joe says no...
First off I'm against it, if for only one reason, it is not cheap. When I was a kid, they showed a bowl with
pennies dropping in it to get people to like the Power source. This is what I would want first, a place to put the waste. Because nobody wants it in their backyard, that would end the talk of Nuclear Power if they were made to find a place for the waste.
(NIMBY!)
rob says...
Not until there is a safe way to dispose of or store all spent fuel. Figure out a way to shoot it into the sun?
(Oh, sure! Blow up the Sun! Harness the supernova! That's the ticket!... Just kiddin', rob... I agree with you and the others about the disposal issue...)
SallyP (...and are ya ready now?) adamantly (ahem) retorted...
As much as I love President Obama, I do NOT like the idea of putting one cent into any spending plan which includes the word, "Nuclear!"
My idea of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to USE LESS ENERGY!!!
For example, having ONE CAR and not six parked in your driveways. Likewise, one (maybe two) computers, and a few games. Get rid of the capitalist pig McMansions that require heating and power for thousands of feet of space! (Having land is fine, but can the Pig Palaces on it!) Invest in solar and wind power (even coal if necessary), but Nuclear is just too dangerous in my book - the consequences are just not worth the risks! Think Chernobyl, people!!
(I'm surprised, Tovarich, that you didn't cite what the Bolsheviks did in Dr. Zhivago
and fill the McMansions with the poor and homeless, haha...)
The countries of Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl - and how many years ago did THAT tragedy happen? (1986!) And, never mind the horrendous accident potential from a Nuclear Power facility in YOUR neighborhood - consider this: The powers that be (GOVERNMENT agencies) cannot even stop a guy with explosives in his underpants from boarding a plane with approximately 250 passengers aboard, but we trust THEM to protect us from terrorists getting into a bloody NUCLEAR POWER FACILITY!!
(Stop yellin' already!)
NY has a Nuclear Retractor Plant (Plum Island) that has been "Threatened" for years by the City to get their warning system working (I've been here for over 6-years now) and the bastards STILL have not complied!! And the GOVERNMENT does NOTHING!! Do you seriously think they will be able to handle MORE inspections and enforcement if they can't even control that which we already have now??
This will only benefit Big Business in the long run, and we (taxpayers) will bear the brunt of these plants, I say, "No way, Jose!!!"
(Jose? Who's Jose and what's he got to do with it?)
DanD touts fusion (NOT a bad idea, I'm thinkin'...)
I support pursuing a technological breakthrough allowing the publicly supported and fully owned (by the public) development of a commercially sustainable FUSION power source. All it needs to do is pay for itself. But, because a fusion power grid would not need any kind of proprietarily restricted fuel catalyst (beyond the knowledge of production), us proles will never see it developed for popular consumption.
(Okay now, TIN FOIL HAT TIME) (Got mine on... Let fly, Big Guy!)
How many BCEWP (TM, BttbB) fans out there at least suspect that inexpensive energy technology already exists, but that the global corporate empire (AKA The New World Order, TM Illuminati, whatever) will never allow it to -- unprofitably -- be produced?
(Not to mention, Dan, cancer and other disease curing drugs that Big Pharma is hiding... But, that's another issue...)
(Problem is, I don't think they even make tin foil anymore, and aluminum is not nearly dense enough.)
Charlie Y. just in the nick o' time (8pm EST Monday is the cut off) also cites fusion...
I've always had a schizophrenic attitude on this question. Technically it should be possible to do this with reasonable safety, and I have been impressed by arguments from the likes of Hans Bethe and James Lovelock who have both declared nuclear energy a necessity. On the other hand, I don't want to be on the receiving end when a reactor goes haywire upwind of here and takes out Northern Ohio. My qualified answer is no, because I don't think it will be safe, and we need to find other ways of solving our ghastly problems. Fusion power might be nice, but they haven't seemed to have had a really major breakthrough there yet, though I recently read somewhere they had some luck with laser tricks.
(I understand, Charlie, yer being torn over the issue. That's how I feel...)
~~~~~~~~~~~
So, there it is... If'n it were fool proof safe and cheap, sure, I'd be for it... BUT, it's not, so, I'm not... I do like the fusion and thorium ideas, though. I say go 'head on' lookin' into that now... Meanwhile, more solar, hydro, wind, geothermal and even tidal technologies need to be utilized... and 'thumbs down' on 'Clean Coal'!
Thanks to all! Yer the Best!
BadToTheBoneBob
~~~~~~~~~~~
New Question
The 'Putting The Man on the Spot' Edition...
If you were given the opportunity to sit down with President Obama and ask him
three questions, what would they be?
1.) _____________
2.) _____________
3.) _____________
Send your response to
Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Paul Krugman: America Is Not Yet Lost (nytimes.com)
The way the Senate works is no longer consistent with a functioning government, and senators should change the rules to end obstructionism.
Jacob Weisberg: Down With the People (slate.com)
Blame the childish, ignorant American public-not politicians-for our political and economic crisis.
David Sirota: Tax the Corporations and the Rich or Take Draconian Cuts -- the Decision Is Ours
Plagued by deficits, communities everywhere must now decide between tax reform and public spending cuts -- between economic life and death.
Connie Schultz: When Dreams Won't Die (creators.com)
Most of us reach a point in our lives when we decide we have to let go of some of our dreams.
roger ebert's journal: I met a character by Charles Dickens
Oh, no. No. No. This cannot be. They're tearing down 22 Jermyn Street in London. The whole block is going. Bates' Hat Shop, Trumper's the Barber, Getti the Italian restaurant, the Jermyn Street Theater, Sergio's Cafe, the lot. Jermyn Street was my street in London. My neighborhood.
Helena Bonham Carter: 'We're the bonkers couple' (guardian.co.uk)
The actor tells Simon Hattenstone about life with Tim Burton, their latest spectacular, 'Alice In Wonderland' - and being branded a 'disastrous dresser.'
Mia Wasikowska: My adventures in Tim Burton's 'Wonderland' (guardian.co.uk)
Mia Wasikowska talks to Alice Fisher about the pitfalls of playing Alice in Tim Burton's new movie and the pressures of sudden Hollywood fame.
Rosanna Greenstreet: "Q&A: Maggie Gyllenhaal" (guardian.co.uk)
'I'd really like to be Emma Thompson when I grow up.'
Tony Horkins: "This Much I Know: Robert Duvall" (guardian.co.uk)
The Hollywood legend, 79, on football, Brando and the tango.
Ariel Leve: "Anthony Hopkins: Why I am still an outsider" (timesonline.co.uk)
Despite 50 years at the top, the Welsh-born actor still does not feel at home in his profession. Does he care? 'What part of the word no don't you understand?'
David Bruce: Wise Up! Scientists (athensnews.com)
Archimedes, the ancient Greek mathematician, told Hieron II, King of Syracuse, that he could move a heavy ship all by himself. He did just that. A heavy three-masted ship, just constructed, lay on the land. Archimedes connected his system of pulleys to the ship, and he moved it by himself to the water. After witnessing this amazing event, King Hieron II proclaimed, "From this day forth, Archimedes is to be believed in everything he may say."
Liza Donnelly: Commentoon
replied:
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Reader Comment
Re: John Murtha
i knew this man, any criticism of him by the republicants is strictly political jealousy and not to be believed.
some guy
Thanks, Guy!
You're seemingly channeling dear old Dad!
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
Most Watched TV Show Ever
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl was watched by more than 106 million people, surpassing the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H" to become the most-watched program in television history.
The Nielsen Co. estimated Monday that 106.5 million people watched the New Orleans Saints upset the Indianapolis Colts. That beats the "M-A-S-H" finale, which had 105.97 million viewers in an era when there were fewer television sets.
Compelling story lines involving the city of New Orleans and its recovery from Hurricane Katrina and the quest for a second Super Bowl ring for Indianapolis quarterback Peyton Manning propelled the viewership.
The game also obliterated the previous record viewership for a Super Bowl - last year's game between Arizona and Pittsburgh in which 98.7 million people watched.
Super Bowl
Annie Awards
`Up'
The travel adventure "Up" was the winner of the best animated feature at the 37th annual Annie Awards.
"Up" director Pete Docter won the award for directing in a feature production.
Also competing for top honors at the Annies, presented exclusively for animated films, were the musical fairy tale "The Princess and the Frog," the storybook adaptations "Fantastic Mr. Fox" and "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," the dark family tale "Coraline" and the Irish adventure "The Secret of Kells."
"Coraline" and "The Princess and the Frog" won three Annies apiece, including Shane Prigmore for character design in a feature production for "Coraline" and James Mansfield for animated effects for "The Princess and the Frog."
`Up'
Visits Haiti Survivors
Angelina Jolie
Hollywood star Angelina Jolie has met with hospitalized Haitian earthquake victims in the Dominican Republic.
Dario Manon is a spokesman for the Dario Contrera Hospital in the capital of Santo Domingo, where dozens of survivors of the Jan. 12 earthquake in neighboring Haiti are receiving medical help.
Manon says Jolie toured the hospital Monday and spoke with several patients. He told reporters: "She spoke with several children and a Haitian woman who recognized her and requested help."
The actress was accompanied by Gonzalo Vargas Llosa, a representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the son of Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa.
Angelina Jolie
Wins Sonning Music Prize
Kaija Saariaho
Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho has won Denmark's highest musical honor, the 600,000 kroner ($110,000) Sonning Music Prize.
The Leonie Sonning Music Foundation says she "has created transparent, vibrant and expressive new music."
The committee said Monday that the 57-year-old, who lives in Paris, will receive the award during a concert in Copenhagen on May 5, 2011.
The prize ishas been awarded annually since 1959 to an internationally renowned composer, musician, conductor or singer.
Kaija Saariaho
Record 48 Minutes Of Ads
Super Bowl
Think Sunday night's Super Bowl seemed like it had a lot of ads? You're right. Commercials took up nearly 48 minutes of the game - the most for any Super Bowl.
Research firm Kantar Media says the amount of ads that aired on CBS was nearly 3 minutes longer than last year's total, the previous record holder.
The game brought an unusual number of shorter, 15-second ads as marketers looked to keep their costs low but still be in the advertising world's biggest event.
Commercials typically come in 30-second blocks - which sold this year for between $2.5 million and more than $3 million. But Kantar says seven of this year's 66 ads were just 15 seconds long. That's the most since 2002.
Super Bowl
Hollywood Stars Vie For Theater Awards
London
Hollywood heavyweights feature strongly in the race for Britain's 2010 Laurence Olivier theater awards, with Rachel Weisz, Jude Law, James Earl Jones and Keira Knightley among the nominees announced Monday.
Jones is shortlisted for best actor for "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," alongside Law for "Hamlet," James McAvoy for "Three Days of Rain," Mark Rylance for "Jerusalem," Ken Stott for "A View from the Bridge" and Samuel West for "Enron."
Weisz received a best-actress nomination for her performance as faded belle Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire." Her competitors are Gillian Anderson for "A Doll's House," Lorraine Burroughs for "The Mountaintop," Imelda Staunton for "Entertaining Mr. Sloane" and Juliet Stevenson for "Duet for One."
"Pirates of the Caribbean" star Knightley is nominated in the supporting actress category for her turn as a manipulative movie starlet in "The Misanthrope."
London
Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award
Ricky Gervais
British comic Ricky Gervais is being recognized with this year's Sir Peter Ustinov Comedy Award at the Banff World Television Festival.
The creator of the hit U.K. TV show "The Office" will be feted at the festival in June, when he's also set to discuss his career and success.
The award acknowledges outstanding comedic performances. Previous recipients include John Cleese, Bob Newhart, Martin Short and Tracey Ullman.
Ricky Gervais
Sue British Newspaper For Libel
Jolie - Pitt
Hollywood couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are suing Britain's News of the World tabloid over allegations it published about their relationship, their London lawyers said on Monday.
In a story published on January 24, the weekly newspaper reported that the couple planned imminently to separate and had agreed on how they would divide their assets and custody of their children.
Pitt, 46, and Jolie, 34, have six children and joint assets estimated by the News of the World at 205 million pounds ($319.4 million).
Keith Schilling of Schillings law firm said the News of the World failed to meet the couple's "reasonable demands" for a retraction of the story and apology "for these false and intrusive allegations which have now been widely republished by mainstream news outlets.
Jolie - Pitt
Sentenced For Perjury
Sandra Carradine
Keith Carradine's ex-wife has been sentenced to community service for trying to cover up illegal wiretapping by former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano.
Sandra Carradine was sentenced Monday in federal court in Los Angeles to 400 hours of community service, two years of probation and a $10,000 fine.
The actor's ex-wife pleaded guilty to perjury four years ago.
She said she paid Pellicano $25,000 in 2001 to keep tabs on her ex-husband during a child custody dispute. She acknowledged that she lied to a federal grand jury in 2004 to conceal Pellicano's wiretapping of her ex's phone calls.
Sandra Carradine
Pulls Ads To Punish ABC
Toyota
Toyota dealers in five southeastern US states have pulled their ads from local ABC television affiliates over complaints about coverage of the automaker's recalls, the network said Monday.
The advertising agency representing the 173 dealers told the affiliates last week that the move was prompted by "excessive stories on the Toyota issues," ABC News said on its website. The decision only affected local advertising.
The dealers, known collectively as Southeast Toyota, shifted their commercial spots to non-ABC stations in the same US markets "as punishment for the reporting," ABC quoted an unnamed station manager as saying.
During a series of stories preceding the massive recalls ordered by Toyota last month, ABC reported on the accelerator issues and what it called "apologies for quality shortcomings as well as misstatements about the extent of the defects."
The network's reporting on the sudden acceleration issues pointed to how explanations from Toyota did not match the experiences of drivers it profiled.
Toyota
Broadcaster Fined
Dead Rat
British broadcaster ITV pleaded guilty to animal cruelty and was fined by an Australian court on Monday after a rat was killed and eaten on the reality TV show "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here."
Italian chef Gino D'Acampo and British actor Stuart Manning were originally charged with animal cruelty last December after an RSPCA complaint over an episode filmed in Australia that involved killing and cooking a rat.
The court was told that the rat took a minute-and-a-half to die after being stabbed with a knife which the magistrate said caused unnecessary pain to the animal.
ITV was fined A$3,000 ($2,600) and ordered to pay A$2,500 in costs.
Dead Rat
Pleads Guilty
Gary Coleman
Former child television star Gary Coleman has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor criminal mischief charge related to a domestic violence incident last April in Utah.
In a deal with the prosecutor, Coleman entered the plea at a hearing Monday, his 42nd birthday, in Santaquin, 65 miles (105 kilometers) south of Salt Lake City.
Judge Sharla Williams sentenced Coleman to 31 1/2 days in jail. The "Diff'rent Strokes" star will serve the time only if he fails to complete a domestic violence course and pay a $595 fine.
Gary Coleman
Finds 170 More Tons Of Tainted Milk
China
The discovery has punched a 170-ton hole in China's promises to overhaul its food safety system. Officials say they've found yet another case where large amounts of tainted milk powder from the country's 2008 scandal that should have been destroyed were instead repackaged.
China ordered tens of thousands of milk products laced with an industrial chemical burned or buried after more than 300,000 children were sickened and at least six died from the contamination. But, crucially, the government did not carry out the eradication itself, and this month an emergency crackdown has made it clear that tons of compromised products are still on the market.
Tainted dairy has recently been found in China's largest city, Shanghai, and in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shandong, Liaoning, Guizhou, Jilin and Hebei. At least five companies are suspected of reselling tainted products that should have been destroyed, the Health Ministry said last week. The problem products uncovered in the 10-day emergency crackdown have so far been limited to the domestic market.
China
Horror Movie Terrifies Conservative Italians
"Paranormal Activity"
Low-budget US horror movie "Paranormal Activity", a box office hit in Italy, kicked up a storm among politicians and associations on Monday because it is terrifying teenagers and children across the country.
Italy's emergency response service reported dozens of calls, especially from southern Naples, where "several panic attacks lasting more than half an hour took place on Saturday," an employee told the ANSA news agency.
Alessandra Mussolini, fascist granddaughter of the Italian fascist dictator and head of a parliamentary committee on children, said "Paranormal Activity" had "highly distressing content" and was causing "panic attacks and psychological problems among youths."
The movie, which cost just 15,000 dollars (11,000 euros) to make, opened in Italian cinemas at the weekend, grossing more than 3.65 million euros, more per cinema than Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" -- the costliest movie of all time.
"Paranormal Activity"
In Memory
Ian Carmichael
Ian Carmichael, a British comic actor who starred in "I'm All Right Jack" on the silver screen and played Bertie Wooster and Lord Peter Wimsey on TV, has died. He was 89.
Carmichael was a master at embodying a certain type of Englishman: diffident, awkward, often put-upon, but unfailingly courteous and well-intentioned.
He appeared in a series of comedies for the Boulting Brothers including "Private's Progress" (1956), "Brothers in Law" (1957), "Lucky Jim" (1957) and "I'm All Right Jack" (1959), in which he played Stanley Windrush, a recent graduate and product of the upper class who takes a factory job and becomes embroiled in labor strife.
He had resisted invitations to play P.G. Wodehouse's upper-class twit, Bertie Wooster, agreeing only after a short, unhappy stint in New York in 1965 in the stage version of "Boeing Boeing."
"I'm delighted to say, the play flopped," he said in the BFI interview. "I hated New York, I loathed it."
"The World of Wooster" was a hit, running to 20 episodes though it didn't soften Carmichael's attitude toward the character. "Bertie had only one facet: he was a complete bloody idiot," he said.
Carmichael was the driving force for the television productions of the Lord Peter Wimsey, which provided him a meatier role as Dorothy L. Sayers' insouciant but keen-minded amateur detective.
Carmichael is survived by his wife, Kate Fenton, and two daughters from his first marriage to Pym Maclean, who died in 1983.
Ian Carmichael
In Memory
John Murtha
Rep. John Murtha, a retired Marine Corps officer who became the first Vietnam War combat veteran elected to Congress and later an outspoken and influential critic of the Iraq War, died Monday. He was 77.
The Pennsylvania Democrat had been suffering complications from gallbladder surgery. He died at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington, Va., spokesman Matthew Mazonkey said.
Murtha was an officer in the Marine Reserves when he was elected in 1974. He was best known for being among Congress' most hawkish Democrats. He wielded considerable clout for two decades as the ranking Democrat on the House subcommittee that oversees Pentagon spending.
Murtha voted in 2002 to authorize resident George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq, but his growing frustration over the administration's handling of the war prompted him in November 2005 to call for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Murtha's opposition to the Iraq war rattled Washington, where the tall, gruff-mannered congressman enjoyed bipartisan respect for his work on military issues. On Capitol Hill, Murtha was seen as speaking for those in uniform when it came to military matters.
Born June 17, 1932, John Patrick Murtha delivered newspapers and worked at a gas station before graduating from Ramsay High School in Mount Pleasant, Pa.
He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.
Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.
After his discharge from the Marines, Murtha ran a small business in Johnstown. He went to the University of Pittsburgh on the GI Bill of rights, graduating in 1962 with a degree in economics.
He served in the Pennsylvania House in Harrisburg from 1969 until he was elected to Congress in a special election in 1974. In 1990, he retired from the Marine Reserves as a colonel.
Murtha's district encompasses all or part of nine counties in southwestern Pennsylvania and embodies the region's stereotypes of coal mines, steel mills and blue-collar values.
Constituents credited Murtha with bringing jobs and health care to the region, delivering hundreds of millions of dollars for local industry, hospitals and tourism.
John Murtha
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