the eye of Nova's mind

Japan halts last nuclear reactor at Ohi

Man seeking help after North Carolina car crash shot by police -- That must rank among the worst ways to die.

Michigan bridges considered 'deficient,' 'critical' -- I shouldn't have to go to the San Francisco Chronicle to find out about Michigan bridges.

Earlier speakers, readers may be more likely to abuse alcohol -- This firms up previous research.

Will Monarch Migration Numbers Be Low This Year? The Answer Is Yes If Recent Trends Persist | Monarchs disappearing at an alarming rate

More Than Two Years After Meltdown, Doubt and Fear Remain Over Fukushima's Safety

After Chernobyl, complexity surrounds local health problems -- These first two links are current.

Here are some of the articles written contemporaneously about Chernobyl. These are from the Chicago Tribune, which did not report on the disaster until four days after the event (according to one article, "The accident occurred last Friday or Saturday, [...] but the U.S. learned of it only Monday through a report by Tass, the Soviet news agency").

When Chernobyl hit, another environmental issue--that of acid rain--was prominent in U.S. newspapers as well. While researching acid rain, I came across the term "rain dust" which is a type of alkaline rain. At the end of that article, it read, "Some radioactivity in rain dust falls to Greece in 2000 was caused by the Chernobyl disaster." (!!)

In other topics:

Head Start hit with worst cuts in its history

Scandinavian Swimmers Warned About Testicle-Attacking Monster Fish -- This is from Gawker, not the Onion.

Beetles eat greedy offspring Edinburgh University research finds -- The squeaky wheel may get the grease, but the squeaky beetle gets swallowed.

New music 'rewarding for the brain' -- an article I missed posting earlier this year (features the nucleus accumbens & the auditory cortical stores)

TEPCO CEO apologizes for nuclear reactor damage -- "TEPCO's President Masataka Shimizu was taken to hospital on Tuesday suffering from fatigue and stress." Part of me truly believes this is a polite way of saying 'nervous breakdown'.

Analysis: Japan's nuclear nightmare set to run and run

Tepco’s Reactors May Take 30 Years, $12 Billion to Scrap

Japan weighs entombing nuke plant -- "Water in a tunnel outside the No. 2 reactor emitted radiation exceeding 1 sievert an hour, a Tokyo Electric spokesman said. Exposure to that dose for 30 minutes would trigger nausea, and four hours' exposure might lead to death within two months, according to the Environmental Protection Agency."

Last summer, for a short, intense while, I reviewed information about Chernobyl. It was in living memory, technically, but I was a bit young (in terms of political awareness) when that occurred.

What is being said now about Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant sounds like the ghost of Chernobyl just woke up. I swear, some of the same phrasing is being used.

(It goes without saying that the victims of the earthquake & tsunami are the prime concern. It's just that this particular story within the story resonates because of my recent research.)

Edit: Stuck watching CNN's coverage, I was astonished when the anchors cut away from the press conference where one of the engineers stated that venting was indeed still going on. The two smiled into the camera, saying that cooling with sea water & venting were ongoing with a reassuring tone. Yet at Three Mile Island, direct venting was a controversial move.

Then the anchors touted that Bill Nye would be on to describe what was going on, but when he started saying something about cesium being released in the initial explosion & began laying things out so that a lay audience might understand, the anchors interrupted him for "breaking news" of a helicopter in midair, supposedly rescuing someone but not visibly. A lame back & forth with their correspondent on the ground ensued. They never returned to Nye. To their credit, they did return to Nye, who helped elucidate the basics. Yet when he & another analyst started conversing about hypotheticals--simple hypotheticals--the anchors intervened. *sigh*