It is the 22^nd anniversary of one of the worst nuclear disasters in the world: the failure of the number four reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power facility [Чернобыльская АЭС им. В.И.Ленина] near Pripyat, Ukraine. The West found out about the problem from alarms at Swedish nuclear facilities due to the fall out from Chernobyl. The Soviet authorities did not admit the problem for three days.

The BBC has one of their excellent In Depth sites up, and a great slide show that helps you to understand what happened, if not why.

The concrete cap over the destroyed reactor is cracking and must be replaced, but the site is still radioactive and can’t be worked on directly without killing people.

Tell me again why all these people want nuclear power facilities.

Well, the be all, end all WordPress version 2.5 has become 2.51 and and there are security issues, so I will be attempting the upgrade.

If I disappear, or total gibberish [beyond my usual gibberish] appears at this address, I’ll leave a note at the Why Now annex.

Update: It appears to be working.  Let me know if something seems broken.

Well, the CNN headline has some truth: McCain says U.S. government failed New Orleans

(CNN) — Sen. John McCain blasted the Bush administration and all levels of government Thursday for the failed response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

“We know we didn’t have the right kind of leadership … where government agencies were getting information from watching cable television rather than have a flow of information,” McCain said during an event at Xavier University in New Orleans.

“It was not only a perfect storm as far as its physical impact … it was a perfect storm as far as the federal, state and local governments’ inability.”

“Never again will there be a mismanaged natural disaster,” he said, later assuring the crowd that “it will never happen again in this country; you have my commitment and my promise.”

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Oh great, MAC-V MNF-I is gearing up for their latest dog-and-pony show in Baghdad. The Associated Press reports that military officials again claim: Iran Increasing Aid To Iraq Militias

(AP) Iran is ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq, providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Tehran’s elite Republican Guard, U.S. military officials said Friday.

Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military is preparing to roll out evidence – such as date stamps on newly found weapons caches – that shows that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate.

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