Friday, September 28, 2012

Some journalist!

Bill Moyers is a renowned journalist. http://billmoyers.com/about-us/#Bill%20Moyers%20Biographyreport The following piece on ALEC is gripping. Haven't you heard of American Legislative Exchange Council before? Here is an opportunity to learn about it: http://www.democracynow.org/2012/9/27/the_united_states_of_alec_bill

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Nuclear safety culture good news

1) Japanese Legislative Task Force Calls Fukushima Daiichi Triple Meltdown A Man-made Disaster Read the article and watch the video at the bottom of that page where A. Gundersen explains what should bethe difference between the people who own and people who regulate nuclear power. http://www.fairewinds.com/content/japanese-legislative-task-force-calls-fukushima-daiichi-triple-meltdown-man-made-disaster 2) http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120925c1.html So the new Japanese panel responsible for risk-assessment seems to be ready to do some good work... So nice to hear

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Poor Media Coverage

At about 11:05 a.m. of 9/22/2012, a 7.3-meter-long metal beam 30cm×20cm×7m weighing 470 kg was dropped into reactor #3 spent fuel pool at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.The steel frame was , 470kg. It was dropped from South-East side. Workers were trying to extract cement wreckage which got into the spent fuel pool after a hydrogen explosion during the nuclear disaster of 2011. The crane boom accidentally pushed a metal beam into the pool from its casing, reports ITAR-TASS news agency. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) which operates the nuclear plant, says it did not cause any breach in the cooling system, but could complicate further retrieval of spent nuclear rods.

Thursday, September 20, 2012

Thursday, September 13, 2012

PLEASE, WATCH

The article below contains a video that must be seen by every single one of us. It's partly in spoken English, partly in Japanese with English subtitles. http://enenews.com/tepco-adviser-pointed-bottom-containment-vessel-possibly-damaged-video My comment: Without transparency, no meaningful achievement is possible. And there's much to achieve in Fukushima. Public awareness is key. It has the power to trigger the international response that is needed to find solutions to the ongoing crisis.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

18 months after 3/11 and 11 years after 9/11

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/20120911_04.html NO HALF LIFE. FULL LIFE! The above link is reproduced below. NHK is a very official voice of Japan. And obviously, the ongoing crisis is still of major concern.Let us not forget. One and a half years have passed since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Tokyo Electric Power Company has many problems to overcome before achieving its promise to decommission the crippled plant in about 40 years. TEPCO has been testing the spent fuel rods in the No.4 reactor pool over the past 2 months. The building structure at the No.4 reactor became fragile after the explosion and possibly unsustainable to more earthquakes in the future. TEPCO is preparing to remove the rods from the pool in December next year. But the debris scattered in the pool could hamper workers from taking them out. The operator also faces difficulty in handling the melted fuel in the No. 1 to No. 3 reactors. It hopes to fill water in the containment vessels to cool down the fuel and is now using endoscopes and robots to find cracks and holes in the vessels. But high-levels of radiation are disrupting these operations. TEPCO also wonders if it can secure enough workers for the next 5 years. It said it will see a shortage of workers unless it finds ways for them to avoid exposure to radiation. But the utility said apart from a few places in the plant, most areas now register radiation levels below 3 millisieverts per hour, compared with 100 millisieverts per hour soon after the accident. Sep. 10, 2012 - Updated 18:44 UTC (03:44 JST) As for 9/11 and its cohort of wars and horror, let us not forget either.

Sunday, September 09, 2012

Jeff Skoll, a social entrepreneur.

Jeffrey Skoll, OC (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer and internet entrepreneur. He is currently based in Los Angeles, California.With an estimated net worth of $US 3.2 billion (as of March 2011), Skoll was ranked by Forbes as the 7th wealthiest Canadian and 347th in the world. He was the first employee and also first president of internet auction firm eBay, and used the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist and found the independent movie production company Participant Media.

One British MP with Bradley Manning

http://presstv.com/detail/2012/09/08/260494/galloway-condemns-uk-on-manning-torture/ And more about this MP from the Western part of the city of Bradford in West Yorkshire here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Galloway

Friday, September 07, 2012

The Web is full of treasures...

... for you too, English learners! I've just discovered Seonaid's website (it's pronounced "shona".) This website is appropriately called PERFECT ENGLISH GRAMMAR. http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/index.html Here's the link that I immediately put in the left column under the label 'GRAMMAR'. Kuddos to Seonaid for the wonderful job. I hope my pupils will visit your website regularly and take advantage of your great work to improve their English grammar and more! Hey pupils, here are two examples of what you can do with Seonaid. First,this exercise. http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/present-simple-exercise-6.html Then,have a look at this video page. Isn't it useful? http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/learn-english-video.html

Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Desmond Tutu and warmongers

A great piece by the famous South African nobel peace prize retired Archbishop http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/02/desmond-tutu-tony-blair-iraq

Sunday, September 02, 2012

ARAGO-FUKUSHIMA Awareness

Since our school has heating and cooling systems students, why don't we commemorate the second anniversary of March 11th 2011? Let's all learn more about the ongoing crisis in Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. I'M WAITING FOR YOUR COMMENTS PUPILS!

KUCHIDOMERYOU = HUSH MONEY

Kuchidomeryou from Timothée Mathelin on Vimeo.

Honey Ale

or learn how to brew beer...