A ridiculous decision by our government

Our government has decided to restart Ohi Nuclear Power Plant as posted here before. The plant is located pretty near to Kansai area. They say it will make it less possible for us to have the power outage in this summer. They have not expected it on the rational data but emphasize the hazard of outage. They have threatened the people with the possibility of abrupt outage in case of power shortage in the summer, which is called as

 It is before they have elucidated why and how the serious accident in Fukushima has occurred and they have not given any measure to prevent another serious accident at this plant except for an addition of the pump to circulate sea water for cooling. No fortifying the break water wall nor building a quake proof control center etc. They are just being only planned. Moreover, they have not reflected how hazardous it is to have so many nuclear power plants in this small country, which is in an era of seismic activation. They have not gone through a paradigm shift necessary after the disaster in Fukushima.

If another serious accident should occur at this site, it will cause a chain reaction of accidents at 21 reactors in 5 nuclear power plants in the area. That catstrophe may paralyze the economy and the society in Kansai area. Our country won't survive through such a disaster any longer. It may contaminate the environment all over the earth as well. Be concerned about this issue and protest against this ridiculous decision by our government.

This is not a political propaganda but a most likely prospect in the future.

Our plan of the trip to the west coast almost fixed

From Jul 27 through 29, stay at Hilton Inn Bellevue Wa. attending FOC NW Event at the same hotel.

From Jul 29 through Aug1, stay in San Jose or SFO. Hotel not booked yet.

From Aug 1 through 3, stay at Terranea Resort in Rancho Palos Verdes near LA.

A pretty tight schedule because of my wife's work. We are looking forward meeting many friends on the way.

A serious error of our prime minister

Our prime minister has shaken hands with the other two opposition parties under the table. They have decided to increase the rate of the sales tax without discussing the effect on the society etc in the congress. It is clearly against their manifesto in the last election.

Although I admit such taxation is necessary for our country, it is clearly against the manifesto which the Democratic Party of Japan,party of the prime minister, has published in the last election. They have promised the opposite, that is, they would cut the budget which profits the bureaucracy and decrease the number of the congressmen. Such reformation in administration and political system were supposed to come first. They ignored that promise to the people. It ruins the system of the democracy. The democracy requires sweating procedures. Manifesto is one of those. The prime minister should have dissolve the congress and ask the people for approval for their policy in another election.

The democracy is not the best way of politics. It requires much laborious procedures in addition to the bureaucracy itself. When those procedures are omitted or ignored, the system could easily be ruined as the people lose faith in it. I am afraid the prime minister has committed a serious error. I hear the system of manifesto has started in UK. What will they do when the prime minister or the major party has done such a thing?

A luxurious evening

I have had a luxurious time last night. I had three of enjoyable chats with friends, either new or old, on 40m from 9 to 11 PM in our time.

The 1st one was Paul WA6IAF. He is a 60 year old retiree living near to Yosemite natil park. He used to live in the bay area until 1981 when he wanted to move to countryside away from the city area. He was spending much time in travelling for business. And he wanted to raise his two children in nature. That was why he has moved there. I was surprised to hear him introducing Steve KB7VSE, another good friend of mine, living in Oregon as his younger brother. Since I knew Steve used to work for the natl park in Yosemite before retirement, I would ask Paul if he had known Steve. Both of them have spent lives oriented to nature. It might be because of their blood. Paul was just getting up to let his dog go out. But it has passed akmost an hour when we finished the QSO.

I have had a small pile up calling me at the same time, which I scarecely experience nowadays. The loudest and most familiar call was Jim W6YA. He sounded so delighted on the key. I was mixed up for a moment when he told me he would be a father in law the day after. In a second, I realized his only daughter was getting married. Knowing Jim had been loving her so much. I fully understood how joyful he was feeling then. After telling me to see him in eye ball in LA in the beginning of August, he was rushing to Malibu where the wedding ceremony would be held this week end.

The last one was a friend in JA, Takeshi JA4IIJ. I have not seen him for several months. I knew he had been busy at his work as a professor in a faculty of chemistry even though he had been supposed to retire by this spring. He was asked to work for another year. He told me administrative work had kept him so busy that he had not been so active on radio. He has only a modest set up there. He has excused that repeatedly. But his signal was good enough for me. I told him I was touched by the Intermezzo OP118-2 of Brahms performed by Gould. I knew he had loved Gould playing Bach so much. We have promised our very 1st eyeball in Tokyo in the end of August when we bidding farewell.

What a gorgeous evening I have had. It is a pity that I am scarecely able to have such a luxurious evening these days.

The water filters are polluted with Cs

In Gumma Pref. near here, radioactive Cs is found in the filters at the water filtering facility as the web site of the prefectural office says;

http://www.pref.gunma.jp/houdou/q2400203.html

The average value around 100Bq/kg depending on how long the filter is used. They say it is not detected in the supplied water at present.

It is no wonder that the filters are filtering it out at such content. Because the mountains in the northern part of the prefecture are highly polluted with radioactive substances, which are reported to be combined with the organic substances as fermented plants etc and to pour out into the rivers. However low the concentration of radioactives in water of the rivers may be, the filters would concentrate it in filtering process. Those radioactives combined to organic substances are deposited when being mixed with salt water. That is why the orifices of big rivers are mostly highly polluted in Kanto plain area. Tokyo is not free from this contamination at all.

Radioactives flowing out of the contaminated mountains may last for long time. It may go on contaminate the water for crops like rice. The contamination process is just starting at present. It may get worse in years. Water supply, either for industry or for civil use, could be polluted in the future even if it is free at present. It eventually pollute the sea water and the sea products. The nuclear power generation which proved to deteriorate our environment is against not only human being but also all the creatures and the nature in the earth. 

Intermezzo OP118-2 A major by Brahms

I am listening to this music in the bed every evening. It is performed by Backhaus. An old and orthodoxical performance. He rarely moves the tempo or the dynamics. Apparently less espressivo than most other pianists. I still like it.

This performance by Glenn Gould is quite different in style from Backhaus. Not indulged in too much romanticism but still serenely soothing our mind. This could be an intimate accompaniment at night for me.

In protest against the resumption of the nuclear power plant operation

Prime Minister, Noda, has decided to resume running Ohi Nuclear Plant a couple of days ago. The cause of the serious accident at Fukushima has not been elucidated. No measure to prevent such an accident has been taken. No plan for a serious accident has been made yet. Nevertheless, they have let it go. It is a crime to human being and to the earth.

This resumption of the nuclear power plant operation must be quite profitable to some parties involved in the business. The stress test committee members were reported to be comprised of those for the business. They have given permission to go for the operation. The business group together with the government, the burocrats and the mass media are responsible for this event. None of them won't take any responsibility even if there should be a serious accident occurring at this plant in the future.

On the same day, as the organizer said, there had been eleven thousand people gathering around the PM's office to protest against his decision. This is a video clip showing it. Strangely enough, our mass media won't publish about this event at all. It encourages me a little bit, however, that the participants of this demonstration are mostly young people. The reporting girl was crying while taking this video. This is a real serious problem for those young people who will live for the days of possible hazards from serious accidents in the future.

An old and familiar problem

Yesterday, when I was squatting to pull weeds in the garden, I felt the familiar and old pain on the lower back all of sudden. Yes it is intervertebral disc herniation recurring on my lumber area. I slowly moved to home and have spent the day lying on a bed. I was operating radio a little bit.

N6TT Steve's  daughter has had the same problem and had to undergo a surgery recently. I remembered of her in this pain. Of course, she might be in much worse condition. Pain is something which destroy the quality of our lives. After a night rest, I am feeling a little bit better. A kind doctor at our home on charge of me has given me a pill, a pain killer. It might be of help to me soon.

I know what has caused this. Lack of exercise. Without good exercise to strengthen the muscles on the back, the vertebrae should bear more weight. In some situation when there is more weight on the vertebrae, it won't be able to put up with it. It results in the herniation. I should start proper training on the back as well as walking.

Unfortunately, it is the day of parttime work today. I have wondered if I would ask the doctor of that clinic to take over my duty. But he might have things to do today. Some patients might miss me at work. I have encouraged myself to go to work. Yes, my trouble is not serious at all. But I hope readers to realize that some medical staff are working with their own health problems.

It is a real fun and pleasure for me to see old patients. So let's go!! 

Nuttycello

I have firmly decided not to publish performance of my cello anywhere in the internet for years. Because it would mean I have just spread gabbage noise in the internet. But a friend of mine has uploaded my performance in Youtube yesterday. I have done that at a small concert in Chiba yesterday.

Here is the gabbage noise. To correct some misunderstanding that I were a virtuoso by some friends, I would link it here. Don't listen it before you go to bed. A nightmare would come on you, I am afraid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQfh_F3vo8U&feature=player_embedded

Cooking and living

A recent review on the psychology of diet by Mutsuko Ohnishi, a researcher at Harvard Univ., told that, through doperminergic sysytem in the brain, we get pleasure when taking something sweet etc. Fat individuals are told to be sensitive in this pathway. It is reported to be comparable to the condition in narcotic addicts. We may change the habit of eating with training even in adulthood. Serotonin is an antagonistic neurotransmitter to dopermine. It could suppress too much appetite. We should balance these pathways through getting pleasure with achieving things for cooking or gettig foods etc in stead of taking fast foods etc.

I often think it is related with our lives how to eat and what to eat. We could get anything easily for meals at supermarkets or convenience stores. Those fast foods are always high in the contents of calory as well as fat. This convenience might have destroyed a part of our lives. In the prehistoric era, we had to get foods for the day in order to survive. That labor to get foods must have been an essential part of our lives, I believe. We could not or should not return that way of life at present. But cooking and enjoying meal together with family might not be replaceable to any convenience.

For the past couple of years, I have been cooking for family almost everyday. I feel blessed with a kind of pleasure in living in this contribution to family. A sense of deep satisfaction. I found the word "diet" stood for "the way of living" in old Greek in the dictionery. Ancient people must have realized this profound relationship between eating and living.

Decision to restart a nuclear power plant by Noda

Our prime minister, Noda, declared that he would restart running the Ooi nuclear power plant on his own responsibility. All the nuclear power plants are out of action right now. It is quite difficult for us to understand why he would do that so quickly. How would he take the responsibility for a possible serious accident there? The research for the cause of the accident in Fukushima has not been concluded yet. The present safety standards of the nuclear power plants  have not been proven good enough yet. However, he decides to start it again.

Several days ago, the unit 4 at Fukushima nuclear power plant was open to the mass media. It was not in action at the time of the earth quake. It has been, however, paid attention due to the existence of spent and to be spent fuel pool on the 4th floor. The building was completely destroyed. No roof for the pool. Only pieces of vinyl or plastic have covered it. The TEPCO announced that they had strengthened the floor of the pool from beneath with some pillars and walls, which seem not very effective in the destroyed structure of the building. Many people worry about the damage by a possible big earth quake hitting there again in the near future.

The number of the spent fuel is reported to be 1331 while to be spent is 204. A researcher said the amount of Cs137 in those fuel is about 5000 times of that in the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. About 160 times of Cs137 of the atomic bomb has been released in the air by the accident, they say. This amount is large enough to paralyze the country once it is released in the air. Moreover, it would be of a world wide crisis. The spent fuel is so highly radio active that it may be difficult to be handled and transfered to another safer place. They need a big crane and a building supporting it. There could be serious radiation issue to the workers if it were ready.

In Japan, the present safety standards for the nuclear power plants seem to be insufficient. It is based on the myth of safety by the bureaucrats and the related researchers. It should be revised with the knowledge of the cause in Fukushima before any action toward restarting of nuclear power plants is taken. We should stand on the fact that our country has had big earth quakes and tsunamis in the past history. In addition, Japan is getting into a period with higher seismiological activity.

In this situation, how could Noda decide to restart another nuclear power plant? 

RBN

The other day, John N5DF, a good friend of mine, has given me a call and told his PC had told him I was on. It seemed to be linked with RBN. When someone with a call already put in the program hits RBN, the PC tells him that the person is showing up. Chris, G4BUE, a big one in FOC, who used to be one of the sponsors to me for FOC years ago also innocently told me in a recent QSO that when he entered the shack after working in the garden, he found my call in RBN and gave me a call to me to say hello.

In both situations, I was more than happy to see them after some interval. It was thanks to RBN of course. But honestly speaking, I must confess I have fallen in a strange feeling not describable. It is not a pleasant one but I felt being controlled by some machine or something. It is a feeling that I am out of my free will.

RBN is a convinient tool. But the convinience sacrifices our freedom to enjoy unexpectedness. Or I could feel like being spied through that system. Is it an exaggeration of my feeling? However, it still has given us a drastic and fundamental change in amateur radio. The pleasure to unexpectedly find someone  has been, I believe, an essence of enjoyment of this hobby.

But RBN has been actually in use by many hams. I also could check, with the help of RBN, where my signal reaches on a particular band. Very convenient. The issue is how to accept it and to do with it in our ham radio life. I prefer tuning around the bands by myself to checking them on display through RBN. I won't blame any RBN users. It is of no use. It may be important how to utilize this system while maintaining the old ways of enjoyment of ham radio in our lives.

This morning, RBN showed opening to almost all over the world on 15m when I confirmed posting by the receivers. Despite of that good opening, only few were calling me only from North America. I really hope they won't get out of the shack only after checking the display but would listen the bands by themselves. In the future, there will be a operating machine being linked to RBN without the operator himself in the shack and it will work some DX itself?