The CBC reports that a Japanese government nuclear adviser quits

A senior nuclear adviser to Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has resigned, criticizing the government for ignoring his advice on radiation limits and not doing enough to deal with the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Toshiso Kosako, a professor at the University of Tokyo, was only recently named an aide to Kan on March 16, five days after a magnitude-9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan

In a teary news conference on Friday night, Kosako said he could not stay on while the government set, what he deemed, inappropriate radiation limits for elementary schools near the plant.

“I cannot allow this as a scholar,” he said, adding that he also opposed the government raising the limit for radiation exposure for workers at the plant.

The government has set 20-millisievert limit for radiation exposure as safe, but according to Kosako, that is 20 times too high, especially for children, who are considered more vulnerable to radiation than adults.

Professor Kosako has no intention of being associated with what he believes to be terrible decisions by the government. It has been evident for some time that the government is allowing TEPCO make the choices and then rubber-stamping them, just like the US government did with BP and the Well from Hell.

The only question now, is how soon will the Japanese elections held?

The vote for a new parliament in Canada can have an effect on the US, if only indirectly. It might provide the left and center-left in the United States a bit of relief that some people have figured out the scam that is being operated by the oligarchs and their “conservative” employees in government.

The Conservative Party of Canada has picked a lot of the GOP’s bad habits and imported them, including attitudes about women’s health and guns.

The final composition of the 40^th Parliament is:

Conservatives :
143

Liberals :
77

Bloc Québécois :
47

New Democratic Party :
36

Greens :
0

Independents: 2

Vacant: 3

A majority in Parliament requires 155 seats.

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The ABC demonstrates the total lack of self-awareness on the part of “Tsar Vladimir”: Putin raps Japan over nuclear crisis reaction

Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin has criticised Japan for its “slow” reaction to its nuclear disaster and for building nuclear reactors in earthquake-prone zones.

Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor complex was hit by a massive earthquake and tsunami on March 11, touching off the world’s worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986 as radiation from damaged reactors spewed into the surroundings.

Mr Putin says Japan should have promptly brought electricity storage devices such as batteries and accumulators to the complex to help pump in water to cool stricken reactors.

“They didn’t manage to do that on time, and then problems erupted,” he said, speaking at a Russian nuclear industry meeting in the Volga region city of Penza, 630 kilometres south-east of Moscow.

[Read more →]

It’s Hexennacht and the moon is a waning crescent, but there is no Blocksberg available for dancing down here and local fire officials frown on bonfires during “Fire Weather Warnings”.

Of course the Church grabbed this holiday too and called it Walpurgisnacht in honor of one of their Anglo-Saxon saints, rather than good German witches [Hexen].

The Celts celebrate Beltaine at this time of the year.

Archæoastronomy

Canada is voting for a new parliament on Monday, May 2^nd.

The CBC coverage is certainly more complete and serious than anything we get in US election coverage, which is generally heavily biased towards the “horse race” and what people are wearing.

When the Conservatives took a minority government win after the October 14^th, 2008 I thought that two years would be their maximum time in power. I didn’t know about “proroguing Parliament” to put off an election.

It would be nice to see a big turn-out this time to settle the issue of what Canadians want from their government.