In a dramatic turn of events, the #4 reactor at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant has caught fire. Although the reactor was offline when the earthquake and tsunami hit the area, the core was still hot enough for a reaction to ensue. Initially, it was thought that
Read more →Current measurements indicate that in the last hour, radiation was released between the Fukushima Dai-ichi #2 and #3 reactors equivalent to 8 times what a person would normally experience over the course of a year. So, not an unmitigated disaster yet, but things are looking very bad.
Read more →At 6:10 a.m. this morning, operators at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant heard a loud, “strange” sound emit from the #2 reactor. Subsequently, pressure readings apparently normalized between the inner and outer containment chambers. The official statement is that it is likely there has been a significant emission
Read more →“Who wants breakfast? We have chicken and kelp, eggs and kelp and, for those on a diet, kelp and kelp.” Me at breakfast today, hawking my wares to the kids Potassium iodide has been long recognized as a proper prophylactic measure in the face of radiation emergencies.
Read more →One of our greatest challenges is getting the right amount of vitamins and nutrients in our modern diet. A few fruits and berries stand out above the rest when it comes to delivering the goods. Kumquats, a type of Chinese citrus fruit, is one such fruit. Kumquats
Read more →Agricultural companies such as Monsanto and Del Monte are constantly on the lookout for ways to improve crop yields, reduce costs and improve profits. What company wouldn’t? Of course, how you go about the process is what differentiates one company from another. In the world of processed
Read more →As I’ve gotten older, I’ve noticed a trend in society that I find both unnecessary and disturbing: The fear of germs. People have become so afraid of bacteria, it’s evident that they don’t have a thorough understanding of the vital role bacteria play in ecology. Bacteria are
Read more →In the seemingly never-ending quest for the Magic Bullet of well-being that alleviates anybody from any responsibility for their nutritional intake, I bring you something that the Japanese call “konnyaku”. In North America, you may be familiar with a closely-related derivative known by the brand name of
Read more →I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: You are what you eat. If there’s truth to that expression, what are you? Are you well-balanced and healthy or are you loaded with unnecessary calories, unbalanced and sick? A quick look at your diet very often tells
Read more →In recent reading about various vitamins, I became aware of some confusion about the source of Vitamin B12. Some web sites claim that plants are a good source of B12. Other sites say that B12 comes from animals. Yet other sites say that it comes from the
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