Links for 2011-03-17

"In response to the confusion, speculation and apprehension surrounding the rapidly unfolding events at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the aftermath of last week's earthquake and tsunami, a panel of MIT nuclear engineering, public health and risk assessment specialists convened on Tuesday to explain how the reactors work, what we know about what has taken place there so far, and how to put the risks to the population in proper perspective.

In introducing the panel discussion, Richard Lester, head of the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering (NSE), said that "we've been taking in a lot of information, much of it I'm afraid not very good, but really what we wanted to do here is give an opportunity for people to ask questions" in order to get a realistic picture of what is known about the troubled reactors. After initial presentations by the panelists, the bulk of the session was devoted to answering questions from the audience."

"As the villain in both halves of LaHaye's scheme, poor Nicolae has to act as both a version of Chairman Mao and a version of a Rockefeller or Rothschild. He has to be both a Bolshevik and a capitalist Tsar. That combination might might sense to Lyndon LaRouche or Alex Jones, but to those not prone to deeply delusional fantasies those pieces don't seem to fit together.

That contradiction provides a toe-hold, a chink in the armor, a crack in the facade through which we might be able to shine a bit of light. Nicolae's strange scheme to buy up all the world's media, in other words, is something we can talk about with friends and family members who read these books."